Japanese Enclaves: Pt 1 Cairns

Why Cairns remains one of Australia's most enduring Japanese strongholds

As I mentioned last post, we’re in Australia!

Nadeshiko: The best team in Japan

I’m doing things a little different and looking at the Japanese diaspora. As luck would have it, during part of our recent trip we visited Cairns.

Stepping into Cairns Airport in Australia, you will immediately notice two things. First, there is a lot of Japanese language both in signage and among the arrivals. Second, there are very few other Asian languages found.

Asians in Australian cities

This is highly unusual in 2020’s Australia. Even more than most global cities, Australian metropolises has become a true mix of Asian cultures and ethnicities. The 2021 census highlights this fact- with Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Filipino, and Nepalese, all ranking amongst the top 10 most common ancestries in Sydney. The story is similar across other major Australian cities such as Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Canberra. Admittedly there are some shifts in each city, with Sri Lankan, Malaysian and Singaporean each making appearances among the different state capitals.

The major Asian ethnicity we don’t commonly find in Australian cities is Japanese. Counter to the other large Asian populations, Japanese emigres have avoided the largest cities of Australia- instead they have an outsized population and home in Far North Queensland.

Photo by Manny Moreno on Unsplash

Why North Queensland?

Other Australian cities are the obvious choice for most migrants. There are more jobs, more temperate climate, and more variety of industry and entertainment. It’s hard to envisage a Tokyo native settling into regional Australia and feeling at home when every shop closes at 3pm.

North Queensland is very regional, even including its major cities of Cairns and Townsville, it has a population of roughly 600,000 people- about 10% of Sydney or Melbourne. Traditionally a sugar farming area, the roots of Japanese migration to Cairns stretches much further than the Japanese economic boom of the 1980’s.

Since the first diplomatic ties between Japan and Australia, North Queensland was central. The very first Japanese consulate in 1896 was established in Townsville. Rather than the major southern cities of the time, the Japanese government followed where their people were located. By the time the consulate started, 3000 Japanese migrants lived and worked in North Queensland. I imagine the English speaking diplomats at the time would have felt their options as a little Russian Roulette, either getting posted to the major metropolises of London, San Francisco, Vancouver or Cairns.

The initial 1890’s migrants chose North Queensland not for its incredible similarity to native Japan, but due to the high wages offered by the sugar and pearl diving industries. Rural Japanese migrants had a background in being pearl divers, so despite the isolating and dangerous nature of the profession, they set up a base near the Torres Strait in North Queensland.

Fast forward

Network effects of having a solid base of early Japanese migrants has meant that Cairns became an easy place for subsequent generations of migrations. While relations between Australia and Japan deteriorated greatly in the early and mid 20th century (went to war), the population remained outsized compared to other Australian locations. With the many reasons to depart Australia as an ethnically Japanese resident during this time (White Australia Policy, Internment Camps, deportation), the Japanese population in the whole of Australia dropped dramatically.

Unsurprisingly, the lifting of the White Australia Policy in 1973 was the catalyst for renewed Japanese migration. Japan was coincidentally going through its Economic Miracle so most of the population stayed put. As such, economic prosperity became a lower priority for the few that did move in the 1970s. After all, Japan’s economy was growing at a faster rate and provided more opportunities than almost any other country.

The migrants choosing to move now were the ones who wanted to experience something different to Japan, not a major metropolis yet somewhere that still had a population who spoke Japanese. Often too, migrants wanted to learn English.

With many of the early migrants looking to avoid the major cities that reminded them of Japan, North Queensland rose up the ranks. Cairns and Townsville were the centres of the slowly growing population. Once again local communities rose up with English learning language schools, local grocery stores, and cultural centres all finding ground.

Natural Tourism and the embrace

Until the mid 1980’s, Cairns was not a location for international tourists. It was first the naming of the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Site (1981), and the building of the international airport (1984), and finally bestowing World Heritage to the Daintree Rainforest (1988) that made North Queensland the tourism centre it is today. Almost overnight people flocked to Cairns. The local economy switched from agriculture-centric to being dominated by tourism. The jobs changed as farmers became tour guides, and crocodile hunters stayed crocodile hunting, but famous!

Japanese enthusiasm fueled this growth. Buoyed by the strong Japanese economy, Cairns turned into an outpost. The proximity of suddenly famous World Heritage sites enticed tourism, particularly from Japan. Both then and now, the global recognition provided credibility and collectability factors to the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree. Now officially “more valuable” than neighbouring coral reefs and forests, these were now quintessential items for the wealthy traveler to tick off their list.

By the 1990’s Japanese arrivals were 43% of all overseas travelers in Cairns Airport. Thus Cairns and the region quickly learnt to cater to this new source of wealth. The supply of multi-lingual locals who could guide and support the inbound Japanese tourists just wasn’t enough; now they were teaching non-Japanese locals how to speak Japanese.

This environment meant the cultural snowball continued to accelerate, a rarity in tropical Queensland. The airlines increased their routes so that Cairns had the most direct flights to and from Japan out of every city in Australia (this has now changed). Some of the tourists stayed, set up shop, and added to the area’s cultural landscape.

First Japan, now Asia?

While this all explains how North Queensland is so Japanese (among Australia), why aren’t other ethnicities doing the same thing?

The most plausible explanation is that they did. They just did it elsewhere in Australia. Unique circumstances meant Japanese migration happened in North Queensland first. Other ethnic cohorts arrived later, and sought different employment.

A real point of difference is how Japan approaches nature tourism differently. Instead of choosing the Asian reefs and forests at a lower cost, the drawcard of Australian World Heritage Sites is greater. Also, Cairns is just an incredibly Japanese-friendly town.

These days, Chinese and other Asian tourism still doesn’t focus on North Queensland as a location for sun, sand, and swim. There are cheaper island locations are closer to Asia. But that won’t stop the Japanese from continuing to choose Australia.

How do you like to travel? Selecting the locations by a series of World Heritage Sites, or simply looking for the easiest place to get a tan? If you ever end up in Cairns, consider the Japanese influence.