Marek Kaminski, born in Poland in 1947, graduated from Warsaw University. As an advanced student of ethnic minority groups, he went on to the University of Sweden. In Sweden he met and married his wife, a Korean-Japanese who was traveling there. Akane, their daughter, was born in Goteborg, and their son, Ken, in Tokyo a few years later. Marek made many trips to follow his research plans, to lecture and to develop a writing career that resulted in books, essays and films. He took his children with him on his travels, as he considered knowing the outside world to be an important part of their education. Nowadays he refers proudly to his "multicultural kids."
In turn, Akane is proud of her Polish-Swedish father and Korean-Japanese mother. She enjoys having a mixed heritage, and is pleased with the opportunities it has provided her. As a small child she shuttled between kindergarten in Sweden and Japan, until at the elementary school level Japanese education was decided for her. At the end of high school she began to make her own decisions. She wanted to enter the school of the all-female Takarazuka Musical Theater.
"My parents thought I could never do it. About only 40 applicants out of 3,000 were being accepted at a time, and they were nearly all Japanese. I knew it would be difficult, but still I wanted to try." At school Akane had been an enthusiastic volleyball player, as her mother had been before her. She gave up athletics to switch to ballet, and practiced hard to make up for the years she hadn't danced. At her second audition, she was accepted by Takarazuka.