Vincent Marx, 47, from the U.S. state of Washington, and his wife Emiko, a Tokyo native, first met at a juvenile detention center in Seattle in 1992.
Emiko, now 42, was then a senior at the University of Washington who had transferred from Keio University in Tokyo the year before. With a major in sociology, she was writing her thesis on juvenile delinquency. Her Japanese roommate offered to help her out with the paper by introducing Emiko to her friend, Vincent, who was a teacher at the detention center.
One day, Emiko visited the center to talk with Vincent and set up another appointment for the following week — to come back and interview some students there.