Claire MAREE is Senior Lecturer in Japanese at the Asia institute, University of Melbourne. Her research spans the areas of critical language studies, gender/sexuality and language studies, media studies and queer studies. Major publications include ‘Onē-kotoba’ Ron (On ‘Onē-kotoba [language of queens]’) (Seidosha, 2013); Hatsuwasha no gengo sotoratejī toshite no negoshiēshon kōi (Negotiation as a Linguistic Strategy of Speakers) (Hituzi Shobo, 2007). Claire has published chapters in collected volumes on Japanese language and gender, pragmatics, and queer studies. She contributes articles to journals such as The Asia-Pacific Journal, Media international Australia, Nihon Joseigakkai-shi, Women's Studies, intersections, Gendai Shisō and Sexualities.
Kaori OKANO is Professor in Asian Studies/Japanese at La Trobe University. She researches in the field of the sociology and anthropology of inequality and education in Japan and East Asia, including multiculturalism, indigenous education, ethnography of growing up, and local activism (e.g., NPOs and NGOs). Her key publications include Rethinking Japanese Studies (with Sugimoto, Y., 2017), Nonformal Education and Civil Society in Japan (2016, Routledge), Minorities and Education in Multicultural Japan (co-ed. 2011, Routledge),) Young Women in Japan: Transitions to Adulthood (2009), Education in Contemporary Japan (with M. Tsuchiya, CUP, 1999) and School to Work Transition in Japan (1993).