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CONNECTING WITH JAPANESEIN THE AUSTRALIANCOMMUNITY: A CASE STUDYFROM PARENTS AND CHILDREN
OF JAPANESE-AUSTRALIANINTERMARRIAGE FAMILIES1MIYAKO MATSUI
University of Wollongong, James Cook University

1

Ethics Approved by UNE Human Research Ethics Committee (2016: HE16-256).

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ABSTRACTThis paper explores six Japanese and Australian (English-speaking) intermarriage families’ use of Japanese at home
and in the community and its impact on children’s Japanese language maintenance and cultural identities. Fifteenchildren including four adults who were raised in such families participated in the study. The research revealed thatchildren who have strong connections with the Japanese community have a stronger sense of Japanese cultural
identity than those without these connections. Nonetheless, Japanese parents’ use of Japanese in the home with theirchildren was also a strong factor in maintaining children’s Japanese language use although there were considerable
challenges in committing to using Japanese regularly. It was evident that both the Japanese parents’ home practices
and commitment, and community connections were vital factors in maintaining the Japanese language and culture with
their children. This research aims to contribute to supporting heritage language speakers to maintain their languages
with their children in Australia.

KEYWORDS
intermarriage families, heritage language maintenance, parents’ perspectives, children’s perspectives, cultural identities

INTRODUCTION
Australia is a multicultural nation with a significant number of immigrants who speak languages other than English athome. As a school teacher and a parent, I encountered many families living in Australia who are of different cultural
backgrounds and speak a language (or languages) other than English. Maintaining one’s heritage language (languages) is
challenging, especially in countries such as Australia where one language—in this case English—is predominantly used.
This article focused on the results of a study that investigates the Japanese language maintenance of six intermarriage
families in Australia, where one parent is a Japanese-origin immigrant with Japanese as their first language, and theother is of Australian- (or other-) origin and a speaker of English or other languages. The study explored their use ofJapanese at home and the resulting impact on their children’s Japanese language ability and use, as well as on theirperceived identities as plurilinguals. The children’s perspectives in relation to Japanese and Australian cultural influences,and parental attitudes and feelings about the maintenance of the heritage language, and use of Japanese and English, arealso explored. As there are increasing numbers of intermarriage families in a world that Vertovec (2015, 2) describes ascharacterised by “super-diversity,” it is important to reform the existing framework of nationality, language, identity, andbilingualism from the perspectives of children (Kawakami 2011). My research aims to understand the complex feelingsof children of intermarriage families and find ways to support the needs of immigrant parents and their children in an
increasingly inclusive nation celebrating its cultural and linguistic diversity.

BACKGROUNDThis article explores the results of a study that arose from my PhD thesis focusing on the experiences of the six JapaneseAustralian intermarriage families’ language use in the home and community. I spent four years of primary school inAustralia with my family due to my father’s work. This was my first experience of moving between cultures, countries andlanguages, hence the challenges I encountered navigating these shifts that impacted on my sense of identity. I raised myJapan-born children in Australia noticing the language shifts and owned a small private Japanese language tutoring centre,
where I observed the interactions between Japanese parents and their Japanese and Australian children’s language. Suchexperiences motivated me to research further the importance of parental involvement in maintaining Japanese in thehome and community.
A large number of studies on heritage language maintenance have been conducted in the United Kingdom, the UnitedStates, and Canada, but very few in Australia. Moreover, no studies have focussed on Japanese–Australian intermarriage
families’ experiences of heritage language maintenance in the field of bilingual and bicultural identity and language use
in Australia. With an increasing number of people crossing borders (Kawakami 2011), there is a growing need for suchresearch in recognition of Australia’s cultural and linguistic diversity, the significant number (26,890 families) of Japanese-

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origin families living in Australia, and the fact that 39.5% of Japan-born immigrants were married to Australian-bornpartners (Australian Bureau of Statistics [ABS] 2021). Maintaining Japanese language skills in Australia—a country where
English is the dominant language—is complex and challenging, so there is an urgent need to identify how such families canbe assisted and to contribute to supporting language education.
The main domain of heritage language maintenance is the home, although the community, including a child’s school, also
plays an important role in language maintenance. Language exposure, language choice, and language use are the threethemes that link all participants (including parents, children, extended families, friends, and community networks) as wellas the domains (home, community, and school). Parents’ decisions about language choice at home and the motivation ofboth the parents and children to use (or not) the heritage language are factors that strongly influence language use in thefamily (DeCapua and Wintergerst 2009).

METHODOLOGY
A phenomenological case studies research approach (Grant 2008; Henry et al. 2008; Sumsion 2002) was used in thisstudy to explore in-depth participants’ experiences of the languages used at home. The aim was to represent the actual
voices of the individuals who participated in the study (Heigham and Sakui 2009). Family observation, in-depth interviews,
and questionnaires were collected in 2017 as data to provide what some researchers term thick description (Croker 2009;
Hood 2009; Kervin et al. 2006). This combination of methods was implemented to better understand each participant’s
perspectives on parents’ use of Japanese and its impact on their children’s language abilities and identities.
Observations took place at the participating families’ homes, which provided a natural research setting (Creswell 2015;
Patton 2015) to investigate the language interactions between all family members. Audio and video recordings were madeto assist with my analysis and supplemented by recorded field notes taken to capture the experience observed by the
researcher (Johnson and Christensen 2019; Kawulich 2005; Kervin et al. 2006).
One-on-one interviews were conducted with parents, children, and adult children of Japanese-Australian intermarriage
families and answers were recorded from one participant at a time (Creswell 2015). Semi-structured interviews were used
to obtain comparable data across the range of participants (Bogden and Biklen 2003), which provided me with backgroundinformation about the language use of each individual. Similar interview questions were used for children and adult childrenof Japanese-Australian intermarriage families. Interview data were analysed by grouping the interview transcripts into
segments and labelled to identify common themes and experiences across participants. During this process, I highlighted
important points in the interview transcripts and took notes of participants who had similar perspectives as well as
different perspectives on the same topic. This allowed me to later reorganise the material into more detailed topics and touse participants’ quotes as examples to understand their actual feelings.
Questionnaires were distributed by email to each participating family and adult children of Japanese-Australian intermarriage
families. Questionnaires allowed me to obtain a variety of additional information from participants such as “thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, beliefs, values, perceptions, personality, and behavioural intentions” (Johnson and Christensen 2019,192) focusing on what languages are used within the family and their children’s abilities in using the Japanese language.
This was achieved by using checklist responses where participants select one of the presented alternatives (Burns 2000).
Furthermore, closed questions were used to gather data about participants’ backgrounds and ethnic identity (relevant tochildren and adult children of Japanese-Australian intermarriage families), and open-ended questions were used to gather
additional detailed information and to gather descriptions of the circumstances of language use in the family.
The use of multiple sources of data allowed me to consider a range of perspectives from the interviews when comparedwith the other data sources; this was achieved by cross-checking information and drawing conclusions through the useof multiple interpretive procedures, based on thematic analysis (Bogdan and Biklen 2003; Burns 2000; Creswell and Poth2018; Glesne and Peshkin 1992; Johnson and Christensen 2019; Kervin et al. 2006; Yin 1993).

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RESEARCH QUESTION
The research question discussed in this article is “How does the involvement of intermarriage parents in Japanese language
maintenance impact on their children’s language ability, for Japanese, English, and hybrid language use; and on theiridentities?” This question was derived from the findings that focused on Japanese parents’ perspectives and children’s
perspectives on Japanese language and culture maintenance.

PARTICIPANTS
Six Japanese-Australian (or Japanese-Swiss) families who are currently raising their children in a bilingual environment
and four adult children of Japanese-Australian intermarriage families are the participants of this study. Of the six families,
three Japanese-origin fathers and three Japanese-origin mothers participated in the study. My PhD study also investigated
the genders of parents in relation to the use of Japanese with their children; however, this will not be explored in this paper.
All six families live in a large regional city adjacent to a capital city in Australia and two of the four adults were raised in
the same regional city whereas the other two adults were raised in the capital city. It can be more challenging if the local
heritage language community is small, unlike in large capital cities where many speakers of community languages live andhave opportunities to connect (Clyne 2005). Pseudonyms are used for all participants.

SIX JAPANESE-AUSTRALIAN (OR JAPANESE-SWISS) INTERMARRIAGE FAMILIES
An overview of the backgrounds of the participants from the six families is provided in Table 1.1. The first three families inthe table have a Japanese-origin mother, and the next three families have a Japanese-origin father. All English-speaking
parents are of Australian-origin except for the father of the Berna family who is Swiss. The Berna children were born in
Canada and moved to Australia in 2013. Lucy (from the Kitajima family) was born in Japan but came to Australia at the ageof one. All the other participating children were born in Australia. The children range in age from six to thirteen. Except for
two children who attended secondary school, all were primary school-aged children. Data was collected in 2017.
Table 1.1
OVERVIEW OF THE BACKGROUNDS OF PARTICIPANTS IN THE SIX FAMILIESFamilyJapanese-origin parent(mother/father, birthplace)

Australian- (or other-)origin parent (mother/father)Children (age)Children’s birthplace

Brown family

Fukie (mother, Japan)

Darren (father)

Max (10)Australia

Berna family

Chie (mother, Japan)

Martin (Swiss father)

Lorenz (11)Markus (7)Trina (6)CanadaCanadaCanadaBradley family

Yoko (mother, Japan)

Jason (father)

Adam (13)Tessa (10)Australia
Australia

Uchimura family

Tomoki (father,
United States)

Louisa (mother)

Lachlan (13)
Jasper (10)Sienna (7)Australia
Australia
Australia

Kitajima family

Riku (father, Japan)

Josephine (mother)

Lucy (7)Joel (1; not a participant)Japan

Okuda family

Yasuhiro (father, Japan)

Sharon (mother)

Hibiki (6)Australia

FOUR ADULT CHILDREN OF JAPANESE-AUSTRALIAN INTERMARRIAGE FAMILIES
Table 1.2 provides an overview of the four adult children of Japanese-Australian intermarriage families: one male and threefemales. Yamato and Sara were raised in the state capital city whereas Sonia and Samantha were raised in the same
regional city as the six families studied. All adult participants have a Japanese mother and at least one sibling. Samantha
was the only adult participant who was born in Japan but she relocated to Australia at the age of four.

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Table 1.2
OVERVIEW OF THE BACKGROUNDS OF PARTICIPATING ADULT CHILDREN OF JAPANESE–AUSTRALIANINTERMARRIAGE FAMILIES
Adult children (age)Participants’ birthplace(current residence)

Japanese-origin parent

Australian- (or other-)origin parent

Siblings

Yamato Burgess (23)Australia (state capital city,
Australia)

MotherFather2 older brothers

Sonia Stevens (47)

Australia (large regional city,
Australia)

MotherFather1 older sister

Sara Crowley (18)Australia (state capital city,
Australia)

MotherFather

1 younger sister

Samantha Alford (25)Japan (large regional city,
Australia)

MotherFather1 older brother

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SIX JAPANESE-AUSTRALIAN (OR JAPANESE-SWISS) INTERMARRIAGE
FAMILIES
Six Japanese-Australian (or Japanese-Swiss) intermarriage families will be introduced separately focusing on theirlanguage use at home and connections to Japan, the amount of exposure in the community, and children’s perspectives
towards their parents’ use of Japanese and their identity. Although this is a very brief summary of each family’s experienceson their use of languages in the home and community, it provides some insights into the challenges each family encountersand how their language use impacts children’s language abilities and identities.
Table 2.1
BROWN FAMILY
Language used by Japanese parents and children
English (E), Japanese (J)Children’s Japanese proficiency

Exposure in the community or school

Mother (Fukie) → Max (E & J)
Max → Mother (Mostly E)

Max: greetings and routine words.

Playgroup, Japanese language centre, local
Japanese families, culture in the home.

LANGUAGE USE AT HOME AND CONNECTION TO JAPANThe Brown family consists of a Japanese mother, Fukie, an Australian father, Darren, and their ten-year-old son, Max.
Fukie uses a mixture of English and Japanese within the one sentence and uses more English if she finds it difficultfor Max to understand her Japanese. Max responds mostly in English. Darren understands Japanese but only has basic
communication skills so he uses mostly English with his family. Fukie revealed that she cannot communicate and feels
emotionally distant from him due to her limited English ability and her son’s limited Japanese ability. Fukie wishes her
husband spoke more Japanese but on the other hand, she feels she may exclude her husband if she were to speak only
Japanese with Max. Moreover, she feels pressured by other Japanese parents who use Japanese to communicate with
their children. Fukie’s mother sends gifts to Max from Japan and the family visits Japan every two years. The familycelebrates various Japanese cultural events at home and watches Japanese anime and TV programs.

EXPOSURE TO THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE COMMUNITY
The Brown family is actively involved in the Japanese community such as attending a playgroup, my Japanese language
centre, and organising regular playdates with children of Japanese background. Max plays kendo once a week. Max takes
origami to his class and demonstrates it, and he feels proud when his teacher and peers show interest.

CHILD’S PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE USE AND IDENTITY
Max can understand his mother’s Japanese but cannot express himself using contextually appropriate Japanese, whichleads him to respond to her in English. However, he reacts when he sees Japanese popular children’s characters and tends
to become friends with children of Japanese background. Regardless of his limited Japanese proficiency, he has developed
a strong sense of pride towards Japan and Japanese culture. Regular exposure to Japanese culture and connecting with

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people of Japanese backgrounds in the community may have contributed to developing his sense of identity as JapaneseAustralian.
Table 2.2
BERNA FAMILY
Language used by Japanese parents and children
English (E), Japanese (J)Children’s Japanese proficiency

Exposure in the community or school

Mother (Chie) ↔ Lorenz (E & J)
Mother ↔ Marcus (E & J)
Mother ↔ Trina (E & J)

Lorenz: converse freely.
Markus: converse freely.
Trina: basic conversation.

Local school in Japan (Lorenz & Markus), local
Japanese families.

LANGUAGE USE AT HOME AND CONNECTION TO JAPANThe Berna family consists of a Japanese mother, Chie, a Swiss father, Martin, and three children who were born in Canada.
Martin’s first language is Swiss-German and he is a fluent English speaker. He understands Japanese but only has basic
communication skills so he uses English as the main language to communicate with his family. The family moved toAustralia in 2013. Chie uses a mixture of English and Japanese without mixing the languages within a sentence. Children
respond in the language spoken by Chie; that is, if Chie speaks Japanese, they respond in Japanese. The family visits Japanevery two years and each stay lasts for two to five months. Chie’s language choice was to use English with their children;
however, as the children developed their Japanese proficiency, she began using more Japanese with them. All threechildren use Japanese textbooks and workbooks to study Japanese at home in preparation for their next visit to Japan.
They all watch Japanese anime and YouTube programs in Japanese without subtitles and read manga.

EXPOSURE TO THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE COMMUNITY
The Berna family socialises with some Japanese families in the local community in Australia. Chie organises playdates
with other children of Japanese background and they all communicated using Japanese when they were young. During
their stay in Japan, the two older sons, Lorenz and Markus attend a local Japanese school. The youngest daughter, Trina
did not attend school as she was too young. The two older sons can communicate freely using Japanese as they were
immersed in the Japanese school. However, Trina cannot communicate as well as her brothers.

CHILDREN’S PERSPECTIVES ON THEIR LANGUAGE USE AND IDENTITIES
Lorenz and Markus did not find any negative aspects of using Japanese and do not find it difficult to speak Japanese with
their mother and relatives in Japan. Trina, however, finds it difficult to speak Japanese and feels that she cannot speak
Japanese as fluently as her brothers. Lorenz identifies himself as Japanese-Swiss whereas Markus and Trina identify
themselves as Canadians.
Table 2.3
BRADLEY FAMILY
Language used by Japanese parents and children
English (E), Japanese (J)Children’s Japanese proficiency

Exposure in the community or school

Mother (Yoko) → Adam (Mostly J)
Adam → Mother (Mostly E)
Mother → Tessa (Mostly J)
Tessa → Mother (E)Adam: basic conversation.
Tessa: greetings and routine words.

Playgroup, Mothers’ group, Japanese community
language school, local Japanese families,
Japanese study at secondary school (Adam),
culture in the home.

LANGUAGE USE AT HOME AND CONNECTION TO JAPANThe Bradley family consists of a Japanese mother, Yoko, an Australian father, Jason, and their two children Adam who
attends high school and Tessa who is in upper primary school. Yoko uses mostly Japanese to communicate with her
children. Yoko’s sister lived with the Bradley family when Adam was in preschool so Japanese was used predominantly
at home. The language gradually shifted to English when Yoko’s sister returned to Japan before Adam entered primaryschool. Both her children refused to speak Japanese during the early years of primary school. Yoko recognised theNSJLE 2022 PROCEEDINGS

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decreased use of Japanese at home so she decided to increase her use of Japanese with her children when they werein middle to upper primary school. During the family observation of this study, the mother used mostly Japanese but her
children responded mostly in English. The family was having a Japanese traditional breakfast during the observation. Yokocontinues to use Japanese despite Jason, who only has basic Japanese communication skills, being present. Yoko hasvery strong connections with her family in Japan and not only do the Bradleys visit Japan every two years but her parents
also visit Australia.

EXPOSURE TO THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE COMMUNITY
Yoko has strong connections to the local Japanese community in Australia. She established a Japanese community
language school in the local area with other Japanese parents. Yoko teaches Japanese at the community language schooland her children attend there as students. Yoko joined the mother’s group as well as a playgroup for her children when they
were young. Adam studies Japanese as an elective subject at secondary school.

CHILDREN’S PERSPECTIVES ON THEIR LANGUAGE USE AND IDENTITIESAdam seems to have more confidence in his Japanese than his sister, Tessa. This may be due to more exposure to
Japanese he had as a young child and taking Japanese as an elective subject at his school. Tessa has anxiety about
speaking Japanese in front of her Japanese relatives and prefers to have her mother by her side. While Adam can respondto his mother in Japanese, which was not observed during the data collection, Tessa understands her mother’s Japanese
but has difficulty responding in Japanese. Yet, she still wishes her mother to continue using Japanese with her. Bothchildren identify themselves as Japanese-Australian.
Table 2.4
UCHIMURA FAMILY
Language used by Japanese parents and children
English (E), Japanese (J)Children’s Japanese proficiency

Exposure in the community or school

Father (Tomoki) ↔ Lachlan (Mostly J)
Father ↔ Jasper (Mostly J)
Father → Sienna (Mostly J)
Sienna → Father (E)Lachlan: basic conversation.
Jasper: basic conversation.
Sienna: greetings and routine words.

Japanese language centre(Lachlan & Jasper), Japanese study at secondary
school (Lachlan).

LANGUAGE USE AT HOME AND CONNECTION TO JAPANThe Uchimura family consists of a Japanese father, Tomoki, an Australian mother, Louisa, and three children, Lachlan,
Jasper, and Sienna. The oldest son, Lachlan attends secondary school and Jasper and Sienna are in primary school.
Tomoki was born in the United States where his father was working but returned to Japan when he was ten months old.
He is very determined to use Japanese with his children and made the decision to use Japanese with them before they
were born. He uses Japanese to communicate with his children and the two older sons respond to him in Japanese. The
youngest daughter, Sienna either responds to him in English or ignores him when Japanese is spoken to her. Their mother,
Louisa has very limited Japanese so only English is spoken with her. Tomoki’s commitment to using Japanese is inspiredby his older sister who insisted he raise his children bilingually. Tomoki believes that his wife is against his use of Japanesewith their children; however, she shared in the interview that she was glad that Tomoki has been using Japanese withthem. Regardless of how he thinks she may feel, Tomoki continues to use Japanese with them. The family visited Japan
three times in total due to the consideration of Louisa who might think, “Japan again?” although Tomoki wants to visit Japan
more often.

EXPOSURE TO THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE COMMUNITY
The two older sons Lachlan and Jasper learnt Japanese at my Japanese language centre for over three years. Since
the start of secondary school, Lachlan withdrew from the Japanese language centre and took Japanese as an elective
subject at school. Other than these connections to their Japanese learning, the family hardly have any connections with theJapanese community. Although Tomoki wishes to connect with Japanese people in the local community, he does not want
Louisa to feel excluded. Sienna does not have any exposure to Japanese besides her father’s use of Japanese.

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CHILDREN’S PERSPECTIVES ON THEIR LANGUAGE USE AND IDENTITIESRegardless of their Japanese proficiency, all children responded that they were glad that their father continued to speak
Japanese with them. The second son, Jasper speaks Japanese most fluently among his siblings; however, he identified
himself as Australian whereas Lachlan and Sienna identified themselves as Japanese-Australian. Lachlan and Jasper havemore exposure to Japanese than their sister as she spends more time with their mother than her father. The older twosons spend more time with their father when he is at home although he works full-time during the week.
Table 2.5
KITAJIMA FAMILY
Language used by Japanese parents and children
English (E), Japanese (J)Children’s Japanese proficiency

Exposure in the community or school

Father (Riku) ↔ Lucy (Mostly E)

Lucy: greetings and routine words.

Japanese language centre, Japanese community
language school, local Japanese families,
favourite pop culture.

LANGUAGE USE AT HOME AND CONNECTION TO JAPANThe Kitajima family consists of a Japanese father, Riku, an Australian mother, Josephine, and two children, a seven-yearold Lucy and a one-year-old Joel. Lucy was the only child participant in this family. Lucy was born in Japan and moved
to Australia when she was one year old due to the evacuation caused by the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. Riku andJosephine agreed to use English in Japan and Japanese in Australia so English was used mostly at home in Japan. Aftermoving to Australia, they were unable to adhere to their original decision and the use of Japanese gradually decreased.
Riku wanted to use more Japanese with Lucy; however, the pressure from his wife and daughter forced him to use more
English. Nevertheless, Josephine has basic Japanese communication skills and is positive towards Lucy being bilingual but
she feels frustrated if she cannot understand the Japanese that Riku uses or express her feelings in Japanese.
Riku is absent from home three days during the week due to his work. During his absence, Josephine spends time with theirchildren using English. These factors cause reduced exposure to Japanese. The family visited Japan once since relocating
to Australia due to the fear of radioactivity. During their visit, Riku and Josephine noticed that Lucy spoke Japanese outside
the home and on their return to Australia, she renewed her interest and was inspired to maintain Japanese. Riku’s parents
visited Australia a few times, and Japanese was used during their visits. Josephine feels the pressure when her mother-inlaw (Riku’s mother) constantly tells the family, “Speak Japanese! Speak Japanese!” Yet, Lucy has a good relationship with
her Japanese grandparents.

EXPOSURE TO THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE COMMUNITY
Lucy attended preschool when the family lived in Japan. Even though English was used at home, she was exposed toJapanese in the community. In Australia, Lucy attended my Japanese language centre for six months when she was three
years old. Later, she moved to a Japanese community language school which was set up by Yoko Bradley. Lucy tends tobecome friends with children of similar backgrounds (Japanese-Australian) and has a few friends of Japanese backgroundwhom she has met through her parents. These connections with the community show her parents’ wish to provide
opportunities for more exposure to Japanese.

CHILD’S PERSPECTIVES ON THEIR LANGUAGE USE AND IDENTITIESLucy mentioned that she wished her father did not speak Japanese in front of her friends as it made her feel embarrassed.
On the other hand, she wishes her father spoke more Japanese with her as she wants to learn more Japanese. She
realises that her father does not use as much Japanese with her as before. Lucy identifies herself as Japanese-Australian.

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Table 2.6
OKUDA FAMILY
Language used by Japanese parents and children
English (E), Japanese (J)Children’s Japanese proficiency

Exposure in the community or school

Father (Yasuhiro) → Hibiki (E & J)
Hibiki → Father (E)Hibiki: greetings and routine words.

Japanese language centre, local Japanesefamilies, Japanese pop culture, karate.

LANGUAGE USE AT HOME AND CONNECTION TO JAPANThe Okuda family consists of a Japanese father, Yasuhiro, an Australian mother of Indonesian heritage, Sharon, and a sevenyear-old son, Hibiki. Sharon is a fluent speaker of Japanese and she and Yasuhiro use mostly Japanese. Yasuhiro usually
begins a conversation using Japanese with Hibiki, however, he often gets ignored or Hibiki replies back in English. Although
Yasuhiro is keen to use more Japanese to communicate with Hibiki, he gives up and uses English instead. Hibiki seems tounderstand Japanese as he was able to respond appropriately through his physical movement when his parents asked him
to do something in Japanese, which was evident during the observation. Yasuhiro works as a plumber and travels far fromhome and occasionally returns home late. During his absence, Sharon speaks English to Hibiki, although she can speak
Japanese. This results in an increase in exposure to English. Hibiki has some connections to Japanese culture, such as
having a strong interest in Pokemon and doing karate. The family visits Japan once every two or three years for two weeks
to visit Yasuhiro’s family. During their visits, Hibiki is immersed in Japanese as his cousins and relatives do not speak English.
However, according to his mother, Hibiki responds to them in English and learns “naughty Japanese words.”

EXPOSURE TO THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE IN THE COMMUNITY
Hibiki attended my Japanese language centre with Lucy Kitajima for six months. They were neighbours at that time andhave known each other since the Kitajima family moved in as their neighbour sometime before. After leaving my Japanese
language centre, Hibiki did not attend other community groups in the local area. Hibiki has connections with children of
Japanese background through their neighbourhood or from his parents. Learning karate also promotes his connections
with Japanese culture.

CHILD’S PERSPECTIVES ON THEIR LANGUAGE USE AND IDENTITIES
Similar to Lucy, Hibiki does not like his father speaking Japanese outside the home in front of his friends, as he feels
embarrassed. He tells his father to speak English. However, he did not say that he himself was embarrassed to speak
Japanese. As Hibiki was young at the time of the interview, it was difficult to capture his identity; however, he responded
that he feels Japanese-Australian.

FINDINGS FROM THE SIX JAPANESE-AUSTRALIAN (OR JAPANESE-SWISS)INTERMARRIAGE FAMILIESThe families faced considerable challenges in trying to maintain Japanese. The challenges described by the families are only
a few of the many challenges they face. Although all Japanese parents wished to maintain Japanese with their children,
various social and practical factors such as pressures from family and absences from home added to the difficulty in thecontinued use of Japanese at home. It was evident that children whose Japanese parents committed to using Japanese
at home or were immersed in Japanese at a Japanese school were able to communicate in Japanese. Nevertheless,children who have considerable exposure to Japanese culture regardless of their Japanese proficiency seem to develop
strong Japanese identities. On the other hand, if children have limited exposure to Japanese culture or connections with
the Japanese community, their Japanese identity does not develop much even if Japanese is used at home.
Although some children were embarrassed by their Japanese parents’ use of Japanese outside the home or found it
difficult to respond in Japanese, all the children were positive towards their Japanese parents’ use of Japanese. In short,
an exposure to both the Japanese language and culture at home as well as connections to a local Japanese community
are crucial to maintaining children’s Japanese language and identities.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FOUR ADULT CHILDREN OF JAPANESE-AUSTRALIANINTERMARRIAGE FAMILIES
Four adult children of Japanese-Australian intermarriage families shared their perspectives on their Japanese parents’use of language, their own Japanese proficiency, and their cultural identification. Each participant’s experiences will be
explored separately.
Table 3PERSPECTIVES ON JAPANESE USE AND IDENTITIES OF PARTICIPATING ADULT CHILDREN OF
JAPANESE-AUSTRALIAN INTERMARRIAGE FAMILIES
Adult children (age)Language used withJapanese parent

Japanese proficiency

Feelings about Japanese
use by Japanese-origin
parents

Cultural identity

Yamato (23)Japanese

Very good

GladJapanese–Australian

Sonia (47)EnglishVery limited

Wishes she could speak

AustralianSara (18)

Mostly Japanese

Very good

GladJapanese

Samantha (25)Mother to Samantha:
Japanese and English
Samantha to Mother: mostly
EnglishLimitedWishes she could speak

Japanese–Hungarian

YAMATO
Yamato is a twentythree-year-old man who works as a researcher at a finance-related company involved in the Japanesemarket. His mother is Japanese and his father is Australian. His mother, who is a Japanese-English interpreter, used
Japanese with him since he was born. He spent a lot of time with his mother when he was a child and communicatedwith her in Japanese. He rather feels awkward using English with her. Yamato mentioned that his two older brothers
speak more fluently than him. His father cannot speak Japanese much so when all the family is present, they use English;
however, when talking to his mother, he switches to Japanese.
Yamato lives in a state capital city and attended the Japanese community language school from Kindergarten to Year nine,
as his mother was a teacher there. He did not enjoy attending the Japanese community language school as most of hisclassmates’ parents were Japanese, which caused him to feel inferior. The family visited Japan once a year and he likes
watching Japanese TV programs. Yamato identifies himself as Japanese-Australian.

SARA
Sara is an eighteen-year-old secondary school student who lives in the same state capital city as Yamato. She was born toa Japanese mother and an Australian father of British heritage. She now communicates using Japanese with her motheralthough she felt disconnected and refused to use Japanese during her early primary school years.
As opposed to Yamato, Sara found a strong connection with the Japanese community language school. She made a
special bond with her classmates and their encouragement motivated her to learn Japanese with them. She played an
active role in organising annual Japanese festivals in the capital city.
Sara visits Japan once a year and she attended a local Japanese school when she was younger. She likes Japanese picture
books, anime, and manga. She identifies herself as Japanese.

SAMANTHA
Samantha is a 25-year-old woman who was born in Japan but moved to Australia when she was four years old. She wasborn to a Japanese mother and an Australian father of Hungarian heritage. Samantha moved to Australia with her father
and older brother, but her mother did not join them until two years later due to her work commitments in Japan. During
her mother’s absence, her father, who is a fluent Japanese speaker, raised her and her brother in Australia. Although heNSJLE 2022 PROCEEDINGS

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planned to continue to use Japanese with his children, English became the dominant language at home. Samantha’s
mother continues to use Japanese but reluctantly switches to English when her daughter replies to her in English.
Samantha lives in the same large regional city as the six families. During her childhood, there was no local Japanesecommunity language school. She hardly had any exposure to Japanese in Australia other than her mother’s use of Japanese.
She visited Japan less than five times but during their visits, they saw their cousins and relatives. Samantha has a strong
connection with her Japanese grandmother. Samantha was enrolled in a Japanese course at the university, which shows
her interest in learning Japanese. She wishes she could speak Japanese and identifies herself as Japanese-Hungarian.

SONIA
Sonia is a 47-year-old woman who works as a researcher at a university library. She has a Japanese mother and an
Australian father. She lives in the same large regional city as Samantha and the six families. Sonia’s mother worked fulltime outside the home and her father was mostly at home due to health issues. She spent most of the time with her
English-speaking father while her mother was absent and English was mostly used at home even with her mother. She
had the opportunity to listen to Japanese when her mother talked to her Japanese friends on the telephone.
As Sonia spent her childhood in the 70s and 80s, there were hardly any Japanese programs or resources easily accessible.
Similar to Samantha, there was no Japanese community language school in the local area. There was a very limited
exposure to Japanese for Sonia and she mentioned in the interview many times that she wished she could speak Japanese.
Sonia has visited Japan five times since she was born until the time of the interview. Due to the lack of exposure to
Japanese both at home and community, she identifies herself as Australian.

FINDINGS FROM THE FOUR ADULT CHILDREN OF JAPANESE-AUSTRALIANINTERMARRIAGE FAMILIES
Important results were identified from the interview data provided by the four adults whose language use and identities
were affected by the language spoken at home. In the case of Yamato and Sara, their Japanese parents’ use of Japanese
seemed to have helped them develop their use of Japanese. Additionally, they perceived stronger Japanese identities, as
they were provided with opportunities to attend Japanese community language schools and access Japanese resources. On
the other hand, Samantha and Sonia, who both have limited Japanese proficiency, not only had a lack of local opportunities
within their regional city but also in the era in which they spent their childhood; access to Japanese resources was limited
compared to children of the six families. It is therefore highly likely that the combination of fewer opportunities and lesscultural support to learn heritage languages impacted their language learning activities and inclinations.

CONCLUSION
This study uncovered various challenges and some emotional turmoil caused by the gap between the ideal of using
Japanese with their children and the reality of not being able to use much Japanese experienced by Japanese-origin
parents striving to maintain the Japanese language and culture for their children. All the children are proud of Japaneseculture, reflecting their Japanese parent’s efforts to retain their heritage language for their children. Their experiences ofdifficulties in speaking Japanese, and eventually resisting the learning of Japanese, reminded me of myself as a child whogrew up in Japan and Australia moving between cultures, countries, and languages.
The most immediate environment for heritage language maintenance that parents can provide for their children is throughtheir own use of Japanese in the home and with grandparents or relatives in Japan (Cruickshank 2015; Kasuya 1998). As
there is a limit to the influence of parents’ use of Japanese on their children, the local Japanese community also helps
facilitate heritage language maintenance (McCabe 2014; Pauwels 2005). Parents’ use of Japanese and the exposure to
Japanese that the children receive from the Japanese community impacted the children’s Japanese abilities. Furthermore,parents’ use of Japanese and their connections with their Japanese families and the local Japanese community in Australia
appears to have shaped the children’s cultural identities.

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Understanding the benefits of using Japanese and finding opportunities to use Japanese can help children increase theirmotivation to learn Japanese. I hope that the results of this study will encourage immigrant parents of intermarriage
families living in Australia (and elsewhere) to be proud of their heritage languages and to establish positive cultural identities
for their children.

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