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Since the early 1990s, pushed by domestic economic recession and uncertainty of their life paths, young Japanese have been flying to Canada and Australia not only for holiday experiences, English learning, and temporary work, but also in the quest to find oneself. Searching for “international” work they really want to do, they often prolong their sojourning. Host countries often keep them in temporary resident status, postponing their career development. Suspended in foreigner status, the migrants themselves extend their “subjective youth” – what they see as an ongoing preparatory period in their lives. Based on fieldwork in Vancouver and Sydney, this paper elucidates how the emerging population of self-searching migrants blurs the conventional boundaries between youth and adulthood, and work and holiday, as well as sojourning and immigrating, thus extending “youth experience” indefinitely. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article illustrates the contemporary characteristics of the Japanese community in South-East Queensland, Australia. Although traditional migration studies reveal a common tendency for immigrants to congregate and form their own ethnic niche in cities, the contemporary Japanese settlement in South-East Queensland has unique features, as well as theoretical implications for migration study. This ethnic community can be characterized by the absence of a geographic point, what we could call a ‘psychological centre’. Using a term developed by Appadurai and García Canclini, the article describes it as a ‘de-territorialized community’ where migrant networks are established and maintained on an individual basis rather than through the construction of a centralized ethnic urban space and traditional ethnic Japanese community organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This qualitative study examines the role stress (comprising of role ambiguity and role conflict) experienced by locally hired Japanese (LJ) and non-Japanese (NJ) staff in a sample of Japanese companies in Australia. Expatriates were also interviewed to gather information regarding the impact of cross-cultural understanding on role ambiguity and role conflict in their work relationships with LJ and NJ staff. Both LJ staff and NJ local staff experienced two types of role ambiguity, resulting from insufficient English competence and information shortage. NJ staff experienced two additional types of role ambiguity due to their lack of cultural understanding about Japan. LJ staff experienced two types of role conflict which were not experienced by NJ local staff. These were caused by their cultural understanding about Australia, and their Japanese cultural heritage and understanding of the society and organisational processes. This study shows that cultural understanding of one's host country and parent country could reduce role ambiguity. In addition, it was found that cultural understanding of one's host country and parent country results in role conflict. These findings suggest that cultural understanding could have positive and negative consequences on role stress. Theoretical and practical implications in the management of white-collar staff in overseas Japanese companies are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To support research-based planning this article aims to identify the similarities and differences between the Japanese tourist boom of the late-1980s and the current Chinese tourist boom, in the context of Australia. By investigating the past issues this analysis will assist the Australian tourism industry in providing an informed response to current issues and the predicted levels of Chinese visitation. This will provide the basis for positive host-visitor relations and assist sustainable inbound tourism development within Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]