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6 university cuties to face off at Miss Science beauty pageant

36 Comments
By Steven Simonitch

At Japanese universities, female science and engineering majors are definitely in the minority. Even in Tokyo, it’s not uncommon for ladies to make up less than 10% of enrollment for science departments. But the elusive "rikei joshi," or “science girl,” does exist and Japanese student organization CURIE is holding a pageant called “Miss Rekei Contest” to give them a chance to prove they’ve got beauty as well as brains.

The pageant will be held on Sept 12 at the Kitazawa Town Hall located about 10 minutes from Shimokitazawa station in Tokyo.

The contestants hail from some of Tokyo’s top universities and are majoring in fields from programming to biology.

  1. Shiho Nakaoka Waseda University Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry (1st year master's candidate, biochemistry)

  2. Akira Hayashi Keio University Department of Administrative Engineering (Undergraduate senior, administrative engineering)

  3. Ryoko Suwa Toho University Department of Biology (Undergraduate senior, biology)

  4. Mariko Uchida Chuo University Department of Mathematics (Undergraduate junior, mathematics)

  5. Mayumi Hino Ochanomizu University Department of Information Sciences (Undergraduate junior, programming)

  6. Yuri Minami Tokyo Institute of Technology Department of Material Science & Engineering (1st year masters candidate, chemistry)

For more information and pictures of the contestants, be sure to check out the contest page over at the CURIE website.

© RocketNews24

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36 Comments
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This is awesome..At last won't speculate my self against science...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

First, I misread the title as the "6 university cuties to face off at Miss Science beauty pregnant", which made me to read the article to figure out what's the hell was going on...

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What a turn on! Brains and beauty are a rare combination. Wish I had more that looked like Shiho in my classes!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

How much money do they make for entering or winning? Maybe they did this for the cash...those universities are not cheap, y'know.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Maybe a part of the problem is that women are doing this to themselves.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Hand out the drool cups, Mamma, all the guys are salivating tonight.

NO! They can not have a Mr. Universe contest of science. It would be called, SCIENCE GUY ON STEROIDS. Men are not judged by their looks. Einstein would not have won any beauty contests. No six pack abs on him. No figure of Hercules. Women are judged by their looks and are not to be expected to have any active grey matter between their ears.

"Like! Can anybody tell me what's one plus one is ?"

What would happen if men were judged by the same superficial standards as women are judged by?

"Here he is Mr. America. Here he is with beauty, style and grace."

1 ( +2 / -1 )

my Beaker is getting hot!!

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

If the contestants' careers are enhanced by this, it will be for all the wrong reasons.

If the goal is increased female participation in sciences, have a contest based on academic merit and innovation, not this tired, unoriginal, superficial nonsense.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

who cares?? no wonder Japanese Universities are going down the drain.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Ugh. It's awesome that these ladies are fierce, pretty and smart. But their accomplishments in the sciences should be admired as human beings, not reduced to this supposed fundamental value of a woman: being pretty.... they've earned so much more than that and this is stupid.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

My favorites are Akira Hayashi and Shino Nakaoka, they are adorable. But all girls from the contest are beautiful (because they not only have physical beauty, but also brains). There should be much more girls in science! Japanese girls, gambatte kudasai!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

None from Todai....

It's good to see people are trying all kind of things to improve the image of the woman scientist, maybe this will lure more girls into the science and engineering departments. This is by no means a problem limited to Japan. However, one of the main obstacles is, if these girls were to stay in research, they will have very little time for their family. And many women are turned off by this.

Another issue is that a cutie in a lab full of males means lots of trouble. I've had such a student, cute, highly educated, the guys were all in love with her. The funny thing is that outside of the lab, she could not find a boyfriend, since the typical J male was scared off by her educational background

0 ( +0 / -0 )

There could at least have been a written description of the physical characteristics of the candidates so we could have some idea of who we would pick.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

To those criticizing the contest: it's just for fun. If any of those women objected "objectifying," they would simply not enter the competition. Since none of them complain, why should any of you jump into either "defending" them or putting them down in any way?

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Beauty and brains - an unbeatable combination!

A heart of gold beats both easily in my humble opinion, and my dating history proves that. None of these shallow beauty contests ever judge the heart, and even the most callous, greedy, evil witch can win so long as she puts on even the phoniest show.

-5 ( +3 / -8 )

Beauty and brains - an unbeatable combination!

0 ( +2 / -2 )

What about hokudai, tohoku, kyushu, etc? Why only consider Tokyo area schools?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@Daijoboots

It was the same at my non-Japanese university.

Say it isn't so, it happens overseas too? Wow! :-)

1 ( +1 / -0 )

What a load of old tosh. More objectification instead of support for excellence in academia.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Blackrock Akira Hayashi is exactly my type <3. My urge to move to Japan has grown bigger again

This statement tells me you will fit right in here.

-3 ( +2 / -5 )

yum yum

1 ( +2 / -1 )

She blinded me with science...

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Akira Hayashi is exactly my type <3. My urge to move to Japan has grown bigger again

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

my kinda girls, and Japanese girls at that. Woof!!

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Good for them!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Shiho's a knockout !

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Nice, my university is in there. Only a few girls (let alone pretty ones) in our university so it's easy to stand out (ahem), although guys tend to be intimidated by brainy girls.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

A beauty contest based on a field of study?? What was the point again??

-5 ( +4 / -9 )

They may be brainy but stiil a good chance they will be daft (like so many are here)

-18 ( +2 / -20 )

So, ... these women hold degree in Science, and some are still studying hard to get one, but the contest they'll be participating is a BEAUTY pageant contest !? Okay, so it's a Miss RIKEI contest, what kind of questions are they going to ask a Biochemist and an Engineer that would prove one is "smarter" than the other !? In the end it's just a beauty contest ...

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Suddenly I have a desire to learn some science.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

At Japanese universities, female science and engineering majors are definitely in the minority

It was the same at my non-Japanese university.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Oh Shiho! Beauty and brains. My kind of woman.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

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