Born to a Japanese mother and an Australian father, Iori and Ukyou Forsyth are members of a popular YouTube Channel “Big Family, the Forsyth”, posting about their bilingual and bicultural lives in Japan and Australia since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
Iori, the eldest of eight siblings, and Ukyou the third-son, are also one of 12 official supporters of Ready for Australia! – an initiative by Tourism Australia to promote Australia to Japan's Z and millennial generation。
Launched on February 16 in collaboration with Japan’s web based travel media, TABIPPO, Japan’s popular YouTubers, photographers and influencers have come on board, to help bring Japanese tourism back into Australia.
Iori and Ukyou were both born in Australia but has spent much of their childhood in Hiroshima, Japan, moving to Australia only recently.
As the only campaign supporters currently living in Australia, the pair has been posting about the situation of Australia "now", as the country remained shut for most of the Japanese in the past 2 years.
According to the comments and reactions that they receive on their YouTube channel, followed by over 750,000 people, the Japanese people are ready and eager to travel to Australia now, says Iori.
The Forsyth are well known and well respected by the Japanese community for their beautiful family bond. And this bond was further strengthened, when they began their YouTube channel.
With half of the family living in Sydney, and the other half in Japan, creating and posting their YouTube videos every week, meant the family members were communicating and discussing daily.
The Forsyth's family, also known as the "big family YouTuber" in Japan. Source: Iori and Ukyou Forsyth
"It was also a way to check for each other's safety and well being" Iori tells SBS Japanese.
The family covers a wide range of topics, from promoting Australia and the Australian lifestyle, to their bilingual and bicultural backgrounds, to their mother doing a "Macca's Run" challenge, to see if she could receive the correct order with her English.
But one of the most popular post is about Ukyou sharing his experience of coming out.
He says, that not everyone has a large platform like the 'Big Family, the Forsyth" to voice out their opinions, and hopes that he can do this for the minority groups of Japan.
While continuing the promotion of Japan through various collaborations, Iori hopes to also create communities where people can interact, rather than just posting and sharing which is one-way communication.
For more, listen to Iori and Ukyou's audio interview from below.
Listen to SBS Japanese Radio on Tue, Thu and Sat from 10pm
