For Junko Hirose, her Australian husband, Richard Northcott, is pretty much Japanese when viewed from two aspects.
First, he is a Japan "otaku," or nerd. He showed her his treasures — a photo of late pop idol Yukiko Okada, whose suicide in 1986 at the age of 18 made her a legend, and a gown with a huge embroidery of idol Noriko Sakai's name written in kanji — on the first day they met in summer 2006.
Second, he acts like a typical "oyaji" (middle-aged man) because he is not good at remembering anniversaries or arranging romantic situations, as she thought Westerners normally are, she said. "He always thinks about work," she said.