Miss Universe Japan (Japanese: ミス・ユニバース・ジャパン) was created in 1998 in response to Japan's recent lack of finalists at the Miss Universe pageant. It is a branch from the former Miss Japan pageant.

The Miss Japan pageant had existed from 1952 to 1997. During that period, the pageant managed to produce three top 5 finalists and a winner, Akiko Kojima who claimed the first crown for Japan in 1959. After a semi-finalist placement in 1975, Japan managed to place only one more time prior to 1997, when Mizuho Sakaguchi took 4th place in 1988.

Since its founding in 1998, the Miss Universe Japan pageant has been run by French national director, Ines Ligron. It has achieved the impressive result of having one semifinalist, two runner-ups, and one winner at the Miss Universe pageant within the short span of 10 years. Ligron was catapulted to the international spotlight when Riyo Mori won Japan's second Miss Universe crown in Mexico City, on May 28, 2007.

Miyako Miyazaki is a fashion model who won the Miss Universe Japan title in 2003, and placed 5th at the Miss Universe 2003 pageant held in Panama City, Panama. She was involved in the training of Kurara Chibana and Riyo Mori before their participations at the Miss Universe pageant.^{[citation needed]}

Japan ⁱ/dʒəˈpæn/ (Japanese: 日本 Nihon or Nippon; formally 日本国  Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku, literally the State of Japan) is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south. The characters that make up Japan's name mean "sun-origin", which is why Japan is sometimes referred to as the "Land of the Rising Sun".

Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands. The four largest islands are Honshū, Hokkaidō, Kyūshū and Shikoku, together accounting for ninety-seven percent of Japan's land area. Japan has the world's tenth-largest population, with over 127 million people. The Greater Tokyo Area, which includes the de facto capital city of Tokyo and several surrounding prefectures, is the largest metropolitan area in the world, with over 30 million residents.

Archaeological research indicates that people lived in Japan as early as the Upper Paleolithic period. The first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other nations followed by long periods of isolation has characterized Japan's history. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, the Russo-Japanese War and World War I allowed Japan to expand its empire during a period of increasing militarism. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since adopting its revised constitution in 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected parliament called the Diet.

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The contest was founded in 1952 by California clothing company Pacific Mills. The pageant became part of Kayser-Roth and then Gulf and Western Industries, before being acquired by Donald Trump in 1996.

In 1998, Miss Universe changed its name from Miss Universe, Inc. to Miss Universe Organization and the headquarters moved from Los Angeles, California, to New York City that year. Donald Trump brought in a new team of professionals to the contest headed by its new CEO, Molly Miles, and president Maureen Reidy. The contest would use the slogan "Redefined for Today" for promotion of the pageants.

The current Miss Universe is Leila Lopes, from Angola. She won the title on September 12, 2011.

The first use of the title "Miss Universe" was as part of International Pageant of Pulchritude which began in 1926. These events, the first international contests, lasted until 1935 when the Great Depression and other events preceding World War II led to their demise. This pageant had no direct relationship with the modern event.

Riyo Mori (森 理世, Mori Riyo^?) (born December 24, 1986 in Aoi-ku, Shizuoka, Japan) is a Japanese beauty pageant titleholder and television personality who won Miss Universe 2007.

As an only child, Riyo Mori began dancing at the age of 4. She has studied at Quinte Ballet School of Canada and also is a graduate from Centennial Secondary School in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Mori also completed her Grade 11 year at Mount Douglas Secondary School in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. She still possesses her first pair of ballet shoes.

Mori was crowned Miss Universe on May 28, 2007, by the outgoing titleholder Zuleyka Rivera.

As Japan's representative in the Miss Universe 2007 pageant, Mori travelled to Mexico City, Mexico in early May to participate in four weeks of events, rehearsals and preliminary competitions with the other seventy-seven delegates.

In the final competition, broadcast internationally on May 28, 2007, Mori was announced as one of fifteen semi-finalists who would move forward to compete for the title. She achieved the highest score in the swimsuit competition, which advanced her to the top ten and the evening gown competition, in which she placed fourth. Mori's kimono-inspired black/floral evening gown of choice came from the Spring/Summer 2007 collection of Gucci.