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Bill Belew has raised 2 bi-cultural kids, now 34 and 30. And he and his wife are now parenting a 3rd, Mia, who is 8.

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Japanese

Ken (pronounced like the boy’s name) is Japanese for prefecture which is roughly equivalent to the US word for states. When I lived in Japan, I lived in Niigata-ken, or Niigata Prefecture.

Japanese like to travel overseas. Well, actually they like to travel to Hawaii. In fact, in Japan, Hawaii is often referred to as Hawaii-ken, or Hawaii Prefecture – meaning they jokingly consider Hawaii an extension of their own country.

Business owners in Hawaii welcome the Japanese tourist in Japanese and show them Japanese menus, even accepting Japanese Yen.

I read a report today that Japan sends more than 5 times as many visitors to Hawaii as they do ALL other countries combined!

All total, about 16.5 million Japanese travel overseas each year and spend $26 billion on those trips. The average Japanese traveler will spend about almost $1600 on an overseas trip compared to the average US traveler who spends just over $1000 on an overseas trip.

The second most visited country by Japanese is…..China followed by South Korea and then Thailand.

I once brought a group of students from Japan to the states. When I was buying tickets and making hotel arrangements, there was one girl who particularly cried ‘poor mouth’.

So, I scrimped and scratched to my regret. One day I took her shopping at a mall (this is a 20/21-year-old college kid)…she opened up her wallet and had MORE THAN $4000 in it.

Japanese have money to spend. They like to spend it. And they like to travel.

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Are you on their destination list?

Why or why not?

Talk to Bill and others about their experiences raising bi-cultural Japanese-American kids.

Bill Belew

Daddy and Christian.

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