Edited by Sachiko Sone and David Black, Westerly Centre, The University of Western Australia 2009

Contributions by Noreen Jones, Gregory Dvorak, Christine Choo, Sachiko Sone, Lorna Kaino, Joanna Sassoon, Yuichi Inouye, Pam Oliver, David Black, Vicki Thomas, Bob Wurth, Andre Malan, Julie Easton, Ronda Jamieson, M.A.B. Siddique, Katherine Hoar, Walter Dawes, Michael Walker, Tsuyako Sogawa Coveny, Romit Dasgupta, Leonie Rae Stickland, Megan Kaino, Yasuo Takao, Lisa Scaffidi, Misako Negi, Reginald Apppleyard with forward by Takaaki Kojima, (Ambassador of Japan), Torao Sato (The Consul-General of Japan, Perth) and Hiroyuki Ariyoshi (The Consul-General of Japan at Belem, Brazil)

Download: chapter 20 Recent Moves in the Japanese Community Towards Multiculturalism by Sachiko Sone  

The Japanese community in Western Australia is a small one of approximately five thousand of a total population of two million people, with over 160 ethnic clubs and associations. However, through a range of social and cultural activities including the ‘Japan Festival’ and ‘Japanese Movie Nights’ held each November it does contribute to the cultural diversity of Western Australia, which has a higher proportion of overseas-born citizens than the national average. It is also in the midst of taking on a new direction with an emphasis on revitalising cultural traditions within the community—an effort that reflects demographic changes within the Japanese community in the last decade.

This chapter focuses first on a examination of intergenerational-interaction programmes planned and run by volunteers over the age of fifty-five for secondgeneration children in the Japanese community in Western Australia and, secondly, on a study of the likely future directions of such intergenerational programmes in strengthening migrant communities and promoting multiculturalism in the broader society.

‘Japanese Culture Day’ at Swanbourne Primary School, 23 March 2006. Photo taken by a school staff.

Other publications by Sachiko Sone include:

Sone, S. & Thang, L. L., 2020, Staying till the End? Japanese Later-Life Migrants and Belonging in Western Australia, Journal of Japanese Studies. Routledge, Vol. 40, Number 1, p. 41-62  

Sone, S. & Thang, L.L., 2015. Transnational Japanese women and family space in Western Australia, Configurations of Family in Contemporary Japan. Aoyama, T., Dales, L. & Dasgupta, R. (eds.). UK: Routledge, p. 120-133. (ISBN 978-0-415-71765-6) 

Black, D. and Sone, S., 2012. An Enduring Friendship: Western Australia and Japan-Past, Present and Future. Nippon Hyoronsha. (ISBN-10:4535586136, ISBN-13:978-4535586130) 

Thang, L.L. Sone, S., and Mika Toyota, 2012, “Freedom Found: The Later-Life Transnational Migration of Japanese Women to Western Australia and Thailand”, APMJ (Asian and Pacific Migration Journal), the Special Issue: Transnational Migration in East Asia, Vol. 21, Number 2, pp. 239-262. 

Sone, S., 2009. Recent Moves in the Japanese Community Towards Multiculturalism, An Enduring Friendship: Western Australia and Japan – Past, Present and Future. Black, D. & Sone, S. (eds.). Western Australia: The University of Western Australia, p. 266-277. 

Sone, S., 2007. Linking with Home Culture, Linking with the Host Community: Intergenerational Cultural Activities in the Japanese Community in Western AustraliaJournal of Intergenerational Relationships. 5, 4, p. 99-102 

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