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I realize most of our posters here on Japan Forum are single, so it will be interesting if anyone will reply to this post.

I'll go first and tell my story. Believe me, I'll be very interested to hear yours.

My wife is Japanese, born in Osaka. I'm a white American, born here in the U.S.

When I proposed to my wife, of course I was very concerned how her parents would react. I met her parents briefly during my first visit to Japan and was introduced at that time as a "friend." So years later when I proposed to my wife, to which she said, "yes," I imagined her parents were quite suprised.

My prospective mother-in-law, was very postitive. She told my fiancee at the time that she had a good impression of me and supported our decision to marry.

It was my prospective father-in-law that had a problem. Let me emphasize the reaction was never based upon race or nationality. He also said that he liked me personally. It appeared the only objection was that his daughter would live so very far away from him after she would marry me. He didn't try to stop or discourage the engagement, but only became very distraught. He had difficulty sleeping and had even been seen by prospective mother-in-law to be weeping after having a discussion about it.

To make a long story short. We did eventually marry. We visited every year after we married. My Japanese father-in-law even had a chance to see his six-month-old "American born" grandson a month before my father-in-law passed away from cancer.

So for those of you westerners that have married a Japanese lady or man, tell your story. What was the reaction of your Japanese in-laws to be?