SENPAI ACTIVITY 

　VOLUNTEERING, etc.

LINKS FOR SENPAI

SENPAI PROFILE

We will introduce the senpai who participated in our events. 

Interview  (Y: Yuki Itani-Adams; N: Nina)

Y: And the rituals like itadakimasu and gochisoosama are not just simply words and phrases you say, are they? It’s the understanding of way of life.

N: Yes. I'm so glad that I've reached this point at this time in my life. I wish I had these kinds of realisations a lot earlier on, but I guess that's the process. Things might have been different had I had more experiences with Japanese when young. But as I wrote in my reflection on the seminar, we lived rurally and not having access to multicultural or Japanese communities, you cannot speak to anyone else. No one understands the reasons why you do or say certain things or who you are. And we did not have access to Japanese food easily. I'm sure you would understand that having lived in a country town yourself.

Y: Hmm, from my own family’s experience I might be able to add the importance of a supporting community. Where we lived, we were the only Japanese family – well, I am Japanese, and my husband is an English-speaker who does not speak Japanese, and our three children. Two Chinese families lived there and that was the extent of Asian people in the town at the time.

Our children went to a local primary school – not very large by city standards. At school there was a home reading diary, you know, to record the daily reading children do at home with their parents. I remember that the teacher, who didn't speak another language, told me that it did not matter what language the children read in for their homework. She said ‘read Japanese books, and when you read Japanese books, just put them in the reading diary’. So I did.

N: Ooh, no way. That's amazing. I think if a school teacher had said that to me, that would have made a huge difference.

I came to Australian school in Grade 5. I remember on one occasion feeling embarrassed, and I got in trouble because I couldn't do my assignment – couldn’t write well. And they said that you are not allowed to do anything Japanese-related because, I guess, it was not part of my education, and it did not make sense to do things in Japanese at school.

And back then, there was no option for me to stay in touch with my Japanese friends. Things like social media only came in later. I think something like that might have helped being in touch. But I didn't stay in touch with any of my friends, which was a real shame.

But things are different now. I think we're relatively lucky in Australia that for some reason Japanese was taught in most schools.

And there's a lot of people interested in Japan and Japanese culture and food. I was thinking about this the other day, but if you came from any other country, it would probably be a lot more difficult because that interest in your country by schools may not there.

Y: Japanese pop culture, anime and things like that are also seen as something cool, I suppose. Many people know about them, watch them, or at least have heard about them.

N: Yeah. Things like TikTok and Instagram. I know they really influence young people, both in a positive and negative way. I think teenagers today would have a different experience entirely because the online access to things is different. I don't really indulge too much on social media but I follow a bunch of Japanese artists. I don’t want to go on about social media and pop culture, but I must admit, it’s really made difference for me.

I said earlier that language was secondary, but I don't necessarily think secondary [as] less important, because it's a huge part of being connected to Japan. But until I started to think about my identity issues, there was no way that I was going to want to study Japanese. It was because internally I was feeling, if I study Japanese that would make me different from others.  People might think, you are Japanese, so of course a Japanese girl is going to study Japanese. So I had to kind of talk my way out of it.

You said that the teacher at your kids’ school made you feel comfortable about using Japanese. For me, it was meeting people like Hashimoto-sensei at university, who made me feel ‘oh I am not weird. I am not the odd one out. I am actually very normal and I'm very happy and this is a really great thing and what a great opportunity I have and I should use it’. I think overcoming that barrier was crucial for me to want to be excited about language.

Y: It is very interesting. After going through some difficult times, you are now back with a positive outlook on your own situation. At the seminar, you mentioned your mother told you that you were a double, not a half. That received some positive reactions from the audience. Do you have any thoughts or feelings about this? Did your mother create the word ‘double’ to refer to you?

N: I don't know. I think it was something that she always said to us when we were younger. I think when we lived in Japan, there were many families like ours and kids were always described as half of this and half of that.  But I think for my mum it didn't make sense to call us half. What does that even mean?  Now that I think about it, haafu is like half Japanese.  That's what qualifies you as Japanese. Then what if you're quarter or what if you're anything else? It doesn't matter what proportion of you is Japanese, you're still Japanese. You are a human being just the same as anybody else, but we have twice as much.

Y: You have more.

N: We have more. I am full and all Japanese on the Japanese side of me. And the Australian side of me is full as well. And I think the description of biracial kids is very interesting in Japan. I think, in Japan, there's also a lot of issues with the idea of haafu. I observed it is often used to refer to the case of half white, half Japanese. But there are so many so-called half kids who are South American or black or Chinese or Korean. I don’t think they are acknowledged in media in Japan and I hope that it changes in Japan - The notion of what haafu is.

This relates to the question of what it means to be Japanese.

Does the word haafu mean that the person is at least half Japanese? Ethnically you can be Japanese, but can be rejected as being fully Japanese based on whether you can speak Japanese or not. To me, there are so many barriers that need to change. And I hope things are slowly changing in Japan. And I'm hoping that ideas of what it means to be Japanese changes as well.

 One of the things that I have come to terms with my “Japaneseness” is that no matter what people say, I know and accept that I'm Japanese. And I feel very lucky that I got to that stage. But I think that there are so many people that are feeling ‘I'm not Japanese because they treat me like I'm not Japanese’.

And for these people, I would like to say to them, actually you can choose to be Japanese. No laws or no societal pressure should impact on how you view your racial identity. And I think that for a lot of double kids, I hope that that's something that they learn. There is so much pressure to conform, but actually you don’t have to, and you can still choose.

Y: Do you mean not letting other people decide for you?

N: Yes. I very well could have gone the other way and completely rejected my “Japaneseness”, by being like, well, they don't accept me as being Japanese over there, so why should I want to be a part of that? 

Y: I am glad it did not happen.

N: Yeah, it's interesting. I am still figuring it out. Perhaps in a different context, I would be really interested in the issue of the dual citizenship and that the fact that you're not allowed to have one. The idea of somebody telling you you're not. Again, maybe this comes down to my stubbornness of not wanting to be told what to do, but I reject the idea that you have to choose your nationality and that you cannot just be both.

Y: It is very complex, isn't it?

N: It is. It's quite challenging. I think it's all in the best ways though. I think it helps to empathise with other people who are going through the same thing.

I think there's all sorts of challenges that come with all other multiracial people. I feel very, very lucky that I was born into the cultures that I was born into. It's interesting though, because once that I've accepted that I'm Japanese I find that I struggle more on the Australian side.

Y: What do you mean?

N: You know the colonial history. The Australian side of me finds it a little bit hard [to accept it]. And also I do not know enough about Aboriginal history and Australia.  And what does it mean to be Australian anyway? Do I belong here? Yes, I do. I love it here. I'll probably live here. This will be my primary country by choice. But I don't really know anything about the colonial side of history. I feel very detached from it. I don't really know my family history. It's Italian or something. Even if both your parents are Australian, what does that even mean?

Y: That is difficult.

N: That’s right. And so I think grappling with the Australian side of my identity is even harder than the Japanese side of things. Because I'm so strongly identifying with being Japanese now. There's always going to be negatives and positives and there's never going to be one answer to it. We have borders and passports. We have all these things that legally document us as something but at the end of the day, we're all people.

Y: There are so many things you need to deal with.

N: I am still figuring them out. 

I think language is a beautiful tool that we get to communicate who we are to one another.

I hope children learning Japanese learn it through something they like, through sports or art or anything that interests them. It leads to the whole mixture of things like identity.

I personally think a lot and talk a lot about the identity issues. But perhaps many people live their lives without thinking about identity too much, and I think that's phenomenal.

I think sharing the experience with other people who can understand makes you want to learn more about yourself. There needs to be patience as well, but I think it is a great thing.

Y: Ah it is wonderful.

N: Yeah. Thanks for the chat.

Y: Thank you very much for your time. It’s been fun chatting with you today and I hope we can chat again sometime in the future.

N: Yeah. I would love to. I absolutely loved chatting with you too.  It was heaps of fun.

（The End）

Interview  (Y: Yuki Itani-Adams; N: Nina)

Y: Thank you very much for joining me today.

N: Thank you for having me.

Y: You participated as a panellist in one of our seminars as a former KEISHOGO kid, and also sent in your comments and thoughts about the seminar for the 5th edition of our newsletter. Thank you for your contribution. It was received really well.

N: That's really lovely.

Y: Yes! It shows that many people, such as parents and teachers of KEISHOGO kids, are interested in knowing the children’s perspectives of having connections with Japan and being brought up with more than one language and culture from a young age, like yourself.

What is it actually like to be brought up with two cultures or two languages? We hear a lot about how great it would be to speak another language and to be exposed to more than one culture, and that it broadens your mind and thinking. But I sense it's more complex than that.

N: Yeah, I have to agree. I have to try and not focus on the negatives as well, because it is overwhelming. It's good to have two cultures and two languages, but it's so much more than that.

Y: What are the ‘so much more than that’ parts? You had a period in your life when you consciously stayed away from Japan for a while, but you later came back.

N: Yes.

Y: That process interests me greatly and I am sure it interests a lot of parents too. Many parents, including myself, probably think we need to help our children in keeping their connection with Japan, whether it be the language or its culture, and not let them lose it. So I think your journey of moving ‘in and out’ of it, and that in the end you re-established that connection is fascinating. What did you find difficult about having the connection to Japan?

N: Perhaps I can start on the context of what I grew up in. I was born in Japan and we moved to Melbourne when I was three and my sister five. Then two years later, we moved back to Japan again. So I did most of my primary school, and my sister did all of her primary school in Nagoya. Before my sister was going to go into high school, my mum had to think about where and what school she would send her to. My mum was a single parent in Japan, and she's Australian. So she had an understanding of the differences [that the two] education [systems] offered us. It was a big decision and we all made it together – whether we stay in Japan and go to an International School, or return to Australia. We thought going to a regular junior high school in Japan for us might not be the best option. So we moved back to Tasmania because mum was originally from Tasmania. And then we started school here.

The school we went to here was not a bilingual school. It was just a regular school. Mum wanted us girls to get the Australian educational experience, which I think in hindsight was probably a good decision. I think Japanese primary school is amazing, but high school is tough.

Y: I went through that myself but many, many years ago. The schools might have changed by now, but I imagine it would still be different between Japan and Australia.

N: It was the freedom to think and the freedom to be creative that Australian schools [could] offer us.  And for us to understand our Australian background as well. And the language – in this case, our English. My English was fairly bad at the time. I could speak well enough, but I couldn't read or write. So coming to Australia was really important for my English. So we moved back here and to rural Tasmania, which is on the North West coast. In Tasmania, there are not many Japanese people. When I was young, there were a few Japanese families, but they were much older. When you're 13 years old, it's not as if you're going out to find community or anything like that.

Y: I guess not.

N: You're just trying to fit in and, so when I came back to Australia, that was when I dropped Japanese completely.

Y: Did you make the conscious decision? Or did it happen naturally?

N: I think it was a mixture. My mum always encouraged us to speak Japanese. When we were in Japan, she would want us speaking in English at home, and if you didn’t speak English, you had to put money in a jar although we never really kept it going. When we lived in Tasmania she said we had to speak Japanese at home, so we could keep it going. I think Mum understood all along that you needed to make an effort to keep using the language that was not available around you.

In that context of trying to fit into a new place, and especially as we were the only Asians in the school, I was trying really desperately to fit in, and not associate with being Asian, and trying to be Australian, you know. My mum taught Japanese at a primary school that I went to as well, so Japanese was always around. But I never wanted to speak Japanese. I was embarrassed. I thought people would think I'm weird. Everyone was speaking English. There's no one else speaking a different language. So when Mum would speak Japanese in the supermarket to us, I'd be like Oh my God. Mum, stop.

Y: I have heard similar stories.

N: Or, when lunch was made and it wasn't the peanut butter sandwich, but it was onigiri and it was like Mum, no, this is embarrassing.

Y: Oh no, I made onigiri for my children too. Don’t tell me I tortured them.

N: But then I think what really changed for me was going to a different school when I was 14, where they offered Japanese classes.

There were exchange students from Japan at that school. Seeing ordinary teenagers who are Japanese in Tasmania was sensational and that made me feel ‘I'm so cool’. I can speak to them if I want to. And that was when I started taking my Japanese classes seriously. And I did the pre-tertiary Japanese, and I went into calligraphy competitions and stuff. But I had a really fabulous teacher and a really good cohort and I kind of had to let go of the fear and embarrassment. I think it depends on who you are and who your friends are. But sometimes being smart is not a good thing and it seems a bit nerdy. I think there's stereotypically some people that study Japanese who are often perceived as being nerdy in the school. And because of course I wanted to be popular, I was trying to hide it.

One of my favourite things in the world was watching anime and I hid that from all of my friends and even from my boyfriends.

Y: It must have been difficult.

N: It wasn't until I came to Hobart to university when I started to feel ‘oh, I can be myself’. That was not only no longer hiding the feeling of wanting to be Japanese but also there was a sense of almost a longing.  There was not a lot of good Japanese food in Tasmania then. A longing to see and meet Japanese things and people.

When I started studying seriously beyond knowledge that I already had, I started looking into why I didn't feel like I belonged. Why don't I feel Japanese or why don't I feel Australian? The university classes gave me an opportunity to explore my own identity issues that I was having and look at it theoretically. So it made more sense to me.

Y: Were they language courses?

N: Yes. I did one class, the teacher had this class for ‘Queering’ Japan. That was an interesting one and we looked at a lot of things like identity in Japan. And that's when I first heard of Nihonjin ron and the question of ‘what is Japanese?’ Am I Japanese?  It was exploring what identity actually looks like and trying to understand it academically.

I think the first time I ever looked at the idea of belonging was when I was in high school and I did an essay for a speaking competition and my topic was ‘what does belonging mean to me?’.

Y: So you were dealing with the identity issue for some time then.

N: And I think language often came second.

Y: Second?

N: Yes, language was a tool. It was fun for me personally because I like languages.  Learning Japanese wasn't the controversial part for me. It was more the identity side that was confusing. Also, how to overcome unconscious biases people have or subtle racism in everyday life here and in Japan as well. In Japan’s context, how can I feel OK with calling myself nihonjin without feeling like I was an intruder or some sort of fake.

While I was at uni, I lived in Japan for six months on exchange, then I was quite shocked, to be honest, because so many times I had to explain why I could speak Japanese to people - like to a woman at the university canteen, explaining ‘my dad is Japanese, and I was born in Japan’. Why do I have to do that?

I just hated that I had to do that every time anyone just saw my face. This happened so many times and people praised how well [I] spoke Japanese.

This is a little bit of context of my journey through to now, I guess. It's still a work in progress.

Y: It is very interesting.

N: To overcome some difficulties with being Japanese, I had to make friends with other multicultural people, like my own sister, a Chinese Singaporean housemate and other people. We can explore things like food or pop culture in Asia together and really be open to each other, and that motivates me to keep Japanese going as well. I really think it's all about that community that you surround yourself with.

Y: A group of people who can understand, and who you feel comfortable with. 

N: Yeah. Community that is not intimidating for you. For example, if you lack confidence in certain areas of the language – honorifics in my case – then it can be a little intimidating to be part of some groups and feel like an outsider a bit. So, it is not necessarily needing to surround myself with Japanese people but surrounding myself with people who are proud of their own culture and heritage, like multicultural communities, and people being excited about sharing food and dance and clothes and stories. That makes me want to delve into my own [heritage] and then that's when I feel very proud to be both in that sense now.

I think language for a lot of people like me might come secondary to the identity. And language is a tool that I use to connect with Japan, Japanese people or Japanese media. It's not the language itself that motivates me to be Japanese. Does that make sense?

Y: It makes perfect sense.

N: I don't like getting told what to do by people often, so it was the freedom to decide and explore things like art and all sorts of other things that made me want to study Japanese. If anyone pressured me to study Japanese language or pursue it academically, I think I might have rejected that. Language is a huge part of having a Japanese identity, but to me, there’s other parts to it that I really resonated with, maybe spiritually as well. Now that I think about it, I'm definitely picking and choosing the parts of each culture that I identify with.

Y: Well, that’s nice.

N: It is like taking what I want and then leaving other things. But my mom always tried to have Japanese in our everyday life. Mum used Japanese to tell us off when we were naughty.

Y: Wouldn't that give you a negative association with the language?

N: It may have, but not in the overall scheme of things. For us, food played a huge part. Mum cooked and we ate Japanese food. We still say ‘itadakimasu’ and gochisoosama’ at the end of the meal. If you don’t have chopsticks in your house, it’s like ‘what are you doing?’ (laugh) It's an accumulation of a lot of things that encourages me to want to keep the Japanese going.

Y: And the rituals like itadakimasu and gochisoosama are not just simply words and phrases you say, are they? It’s the understanding of way of life.

（To be continued）

Firstly, we asked him about his current university studies.

"I can use both Japanese and English, so I wanted to study translation and interpretation, but they weren't offered, so I decided to major in electronics. After I started my electronics major, I found out that there was a translation course in the master's programme, so I changed to linguistics which articulates to that."

---- Why are you interested in translation and interpreting?

"My mother does freelance translation work at home, and I started helping her with that and my interest in translation set off. I'm now away from home and living in a dormitory, I still sometimes work part-time as a translator or interpreter, which I enjoy, so I want to learn it properly."

----- Did you always speak English and Japanese at home?

"My father and mother both understand Japanese and English, but basically my mother speaks Japanese and my father English. We often mix both languages. If I speak in Japanese but if English feels right in some instances, I often switch to English just for that bit, and vice versa. With my sister, who is five years younger than me, we speak Japanese at home and English outside, but between the two of us Japanese is the norm, so when we speak in English it makes me a bit funny. It is the same with other people. When I speak in English with close people with whom I always speak in Japanese (for the sake of others present), it feels strange.

I don't remember being confused between Japanese and English as a child, but I lived in the countryside, so I didn't meet many people from outside the neighbourhood, and when I did see a lot of people, I sometimes didn't know what language to speak, or so I hear. My father once told me that when we went to a gathering of relatives in Japan when I was a child, I spoke English to people who wore glasses, perhaps because my father wore glasses, but they wouldn't understand me, and now I was speaking English to men."

----- Did you have opportunities to speak Japanese with people outside the family when you were a child?

"I didn't usually because it was always just English at school, but from when I was little until I was in Grade 10, my whole family (my father, mother, me and my sister) went to Japan once a year for about a month each time. Every time we stayed in Japan, we took swimming and other lessons and made friends there, so it was good to be able to talk in Japanese with people who weren't family members."

----- Did you study Japanese at home?

"I read Japanese books with my mother. I read aloud by myself and my mother taught me the words I didn't understand. I think there is a big difference between reading in your head and reading out loud.

When I was in Japan, I used to go to bookshops with my mother and, together, we chose the books I would be reading. I liked things like illustrated books about how things work, and I was interested in electronics, so I was happy to read about how electricity works, etc. because I thought it was interesting. Now I read a few Japanese books from the university library."

----- Have you ever thought that reading aloud was a hassle?

"Sometimes I thought it was a pain in the neck, but now I'm glad I did do that. Thanks to this, I now find reading Japanese less diifficult.

I liked Japanese manga and anime, and I read/watched them on a daily basis, so it didn't feel like I was being forced."

----- What does the Japanese language mean to you?

"Japanese is a big part of what makes me who I am.

I don't have Japanese nationality, but I have family from Japan and I speak Japanese myself. Japan and the Japanese language are an important part of my identity. I have grown up with the Japanese language and I feel it has influenced my life in a major sense."

----- What do you want to be able to do with Japanese?

"I would like to be able to go to Japan and live there without any problems.

I felt very comfortable in Japan when I went there as a child. Even when I am in Australia, I sometimes look back more fondly on Japan. Of course, I guess some of my childhood memories have been embellished through rose-colour glasses.

I also want to be able to use adult Japanese. I only use Japanese at home, not at school or at work, so I think I speak childish Japanese. That's why I feel close to the people I'm speaking to (in Japanese).

In English, I can change the way I speak depending on the person I’m talking to, so the distance between her/him varies, but in Japanese it's the same no matter who I’m talking to."

----- Now that you live in the university's dormitory away from your family, do you ever use your Japanese?

"I'm currently a member of the Japanese Studies Society at the university, so there are various activities there and I have opportunities to speak with people from the Japanese university. I was recruited to join the society, but if I hadn't joined, I don't think I would have as many opportunities to speak Japanese as I do now. If I don't speak Japanese for a long time I could lose it a bit, but I feel like I'm closer to Japan than I used to be because you can see a lot more Japanese culture (events, shops, restaurants) in Perth compared to Bridgetown."

----- Finally, do you have any advice for families raising Japanese-speaking children?

"Some children may not like it, but it will definitely be useful in the future, so please don't stop using Japanese. It's okay to just have simple conversations. Even if your child speaks in English, please continue to talk in Japanese just as usual.

Also, I think it is good to read books in Japanese. I think that fiction, in particular, can be fun because of what’s in them – it can be a fun way to be exposed to the Japanese language.

I also think it's important to offer them things in Japanese that interest them and to spend time with other children using Japanese."

Q1. How did you enjoy this seminar? What aspects of it did you find beneficial/enjoyable/fun/surprise etc. for you? What was the key take-home message for you, if any?

I think what I really enjoyed about this seminar is hearing the other panelists speak and gaining an understanding of how similar our upbringings were regardless of where we lived in Australia. I found it really interesting and somewhat surprising that a lot of experiences I personally thought were isolating in my childhood, were experienced by other children. I think that’s really comforting to me now, even as an adult and I’m very grateful to have been able to participate in the seminar.

It was also great to hear how parents, and educators participating in the seminar approached the topic. I think that a lot of the time that kind of conversation with your own parents or teachers doesn’t occur, so it was really insightful to get their perspective.

The take home message was really the importance of community, and the importance of having that network of people around to support you. I think that that is often lacking, and without that it can be really difficult to understand who you are, and what your cultural identity is.

Q2. Towards the end of the seminar, we heard that you liked to have more opportunities to meet with other people who grew up with Keishogo.

Could you tell us what might be good to do to facilitate such opportunities? Could you tell us ideas, if you have any?

I think if there was some opportunity where keishogo kids and their parents could come together, it would be really beneficial for both parties. This would act like the seminar but on a smaller, and more frequent scale. Then parents could lean on each other for advice or support both from and with the children. Creating pockets of these communities where whole families are involved would help to see more people like you, and more families similar to your own.

I think if there were more accessible spaces to celebrate aspects of Japanese culture such as omatsuri or Japanese holidays, we could gain a greater appreciation for the culture from a younger age. Oftentimes I think being bilingual extends only to the language aspect, but that side of culture and identity is equally if not more important, so that should really be celebrated more.

Q3. Is there anything you would like to add? Do you have any messages that you want to send out to the readers of this Newsletter?

It would be really interesting to hear from keishogo children who don’t speak Japanese, despite growing up in a household where one/both parents are Japanese. I think through language my experience growing up and my relationship with my mother was enriched, it was, and still is one of the keystones of my cultural identity. I am curious to see how those without language connect to Japan, and to Japanese culture.

Once again, I really enjoyed participating in the seminar, it’s wonderful and inspiring to see how many people care, and take pride in the Keishogo community, thank you very much.

Q1.

For me, the seminar was very insightful, and I was very happy to hear about experiences of the panelists growing up / living in Australia in a Keisho-go environment. It was particularly interesting to see that many of their experiences overlapped with my experiences and thoughts, which highlighted the challenges of maintaining a relationship with Japanese when growing up outside of the country but also the many positive aspects of being able to speak Japanese in addition to English. I think hearing the panelists talk about how they, just like myself, enjoyed manga, anime and other Japanese culture made me really realise the importance of supplementing traditional learning methods with non-traditional methods like taking up a hobby that uses Japanese.

I also enjoyed speaking with some of the attendees during the breakout sessions and hearing from the parents of keisho-go kids about their perspectives and challenges they face. I was truly very happy to see that there are so many families out there doing everything they can to give their kids the opportunity to learn Japanese and experience the rich culture that the country has to offer.

Q2.

I understand that the Japan Foundation in Australia does a lot of work around cultural exchange. I think it may be effective to partner with the Japan Foundation to have exhibits or events that might appeal to people who grew up with Keisho-go.

It may be worth building up a community through events like the Japanese Film Festival or the Japanese Matsuri Festival that a lot of Japanese Keisho-go people are likely to attend and getting their feedback on what might make them feel included in a Keisho-go community.

Q3.

For all those people who are learning Japanese in a Keisho-go context, I really want to say that for me being able to speak Japanese and English together has been one of the greatest tools both on a personal and professional level. I feel that understanding more than one language truly gives you a wider perspective on many things – which for me has been hugely beneficial.

On a personal level, having the ability to speak and understand Japanese has helped me communicate certain things in a more nuanced way, as I was able to incorporate descriptions of feelings that only exist in one language or the other. On a professional level, having the advantage of being able to communicate in Japanese and English has led to countless opportunities in my work that I otherwise would not have had if I only spoke English.

There may be times when it’s difficult to maintain speaking and using Japanese on a day-to-day basis (especially when you’re not in Japan), but I truly believe that having some relationship with the language, whether it be by speaking to family or friends in Japanese or watching / reading anime or manga etc., will be beneficial in some way or form over the long-term. I hope that we see many more Keisho-go kids in Australia in the future!

Q1.

I found the seminar, informative, inclusive, and engaging. It was well organized and structured, and in the current world of many virtual meetings and events, I think it was one of the most well explained seminars I’ve been a part of. Due to my lack of practice speaking Japanese recently I was feeling nervous about speaking in the Seminar, but by being able to express how I felt candidly using English and sometimes Japanese, I felt really heard and included.

I think it provided enough context as to why we are discussing the matter of ‘Keishogo’ and gave every panelist an opportunity to tell their story and provide their thoughts on growing up learning both Japanese and English. I think everyone had great ideas and inputs into how children now growing up with Keishogo may want to engage in learning Japanese and how families can encourage their kids to learn more. I learnt a great deal from the other panelists, and it solidified for me, that while we had very similar experiences, our different situations provided its own unique challenges. For example, some of the panelists were raised in a family in Australia speaking Japanese at home, in comparison, while living in Australia, English was the predominant language that my family spoke. This likely made a difference in my fluency and the normalization of speaking Japanese. Additionally, living in a rural part of Australia had its own accessibility challenges such as a lack of access to certain communities or education that perhaps living in a city would have changed.

From a more personal perspective, I don’t often have a space where I can express my personal struggles and joys of being Japanese and Australian and what language means to me. This seminar gave me that opportunity, which I feel very grateful for. It also ignited a part of me that feels very strongly about building community, resilience and joy around connecting with our multicultural backgrounds and also the overarching learning of multicultural languages. 

I think the key take-home message for me was that it is an absolute privilege to be able to engage in Japanese culture and connect with community and family through speaking and learning Japanese. It is an integral part of my identity and to the identity of many Australian Japanese people, and so groups such as this one, makes a big difference to feeling a sense of belonging. 

Q2.

Yes, I think being able to connect with other people who grew up with Keishogo would be fantastic. As we spoke in the Seminar, online platforms, and ability to meet one another virtually expands how we can do this. I think the Keishogo group is already doing well by having these seminars, newsletters, and social media groups. I think that so long as it is available in both English and Japanese then it will be accessible to many who may need it.

Something that may allow for us to meet one another in person, is through more localized groups. Perhaps one in each major city/state would create a wider reach, especially for more rural states. As someone who would have likely benefitted from knowing more people like me when I was younger, having a group like this, that is active in Tasmania may have made a positive impact. I know there are other Japanese groups around, but I almost feel intimidated by them and it’s not as inclusive, as you often need a certain level of Japanese proficiency to participate. To be able to have more localized groups means you will need more people that can facilitate these groups/conversations in the areas. I think to have more people included in this will mean you may need to train/educate interested people on ‘Keishogo’ and how to have these kinds of conversations as we did in the seminar.

I think for groups like this to be really engaging, would be to make sure that it is fun and relevant for kids without it being too serious or academically focused. You may be able to incorporate modern pop-culture, manga/anime, J-Pop or other kinds of media into the activities.

Q3.

As a Japanese Australian who grew up in both countries with both languages, it was difficult at times to want to engage in the cultures of either one or the other. I think especially when I was young and wanted to fit in to avoid being othered, I went through a period living in Australia where I dissociated from being or speaking Japanese. I think that there are various factors which changed this for me. Obviously when getting older I began to realise how much of a privilege it was to be bilingual especially as it opens up a lot of opportunities, but I think what really motivated me to want to learn and practice Japanese again was having a supportive community and seeing more people like me around me. Whether that be more representation in media and pop culture, through supportive educational institutions or by making new friends with more diverse multicultural backgrounds. Each person’s journey of acceptance and excitement to learn more about their own background is unique but having a community around you to encourage this, I would say, is monumental for everyone. 

I would say to the parents and teachers of children who might be in the same position I was in, to please be patient and understand that identity can be confusing and may influence whether they want to keep learning Japanese. But your support, encouragement and perseverance will make a difference. I think of how hard it would have been for my Australian mum raising two Japanese Australian children in rural Tasmania, and despite the occasional challenges of isolation and accessibility, continued to cook Japanese food, introduced us to other local Japanese people and encouraged us to study Japanese throughout school and into university. I am beyond grateful for what she has done for me and my sister, and today I am proud to be both Australian and Japanese.