Introduction

Unlike many studies that focus on official, bilateral transactions and large-scale engagements, this volume explores the less publicised experiences of individuals and non-government groups within the Australia-Japan relationship. It represents diverse areas of involvement of men and women who moved geographically and vocationally as they pursued their special interests in the creative arts, media, business and international trade. It encompasses many aspects of personal life, such as travel, marriage, family dynamics and the experiences of children. It spans 150 years of peace, war, globalisation and terrorism, and examines how these issues have affected individuals. Rather than concentrating on the familiar chronicle dominated by military, political and trade milestones, these essays investigate how personal space and alien customs were negotiated, how foreign cultures were drawn on and selectively recast in accordance with particular needs, and how competing codes and loyalties have sometimes generated great emotional and psychological dilemmas in these little-known participants. A similar diversity characterises the contributors to the volume, who are based in Australia and Japan. Like the individual subjects of their research, some are expatriates, others are writing from the country of their birth. They include academics and non-academic researchers from history, cultural studies, social research, journalism, English and communications, arts and media studies