Shigeko Kurihara and her husband, Shigeo, first came to New Zealand on their honeymoon in 1983.
The newly-wed couple had friends who had been living in New Zealand, heard great things and booked a three-week holiday.
They fell in love with the country and the couple moved to Christchurch with their children in 1989 after becoming disillusioned with the number of nuclear power plants in Japan and the country's intense education system. "We decided our family was against nuclear power stations after the 1986 [Chernobyl] nuclear disaster. We were very worried. There are now 54 nuclear power plants [in Japan]," she said.
She remains concerned about the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which occurred after a nuclear power plant was struck by a tsunami on March 11, 2011, and how the government in her homeland continued to tell the population it was safe to live near the plant.
The move to New Zealand represented a huge break in tradition for Mrs Kurihara whose family history dates back more than 500 years in Shimonoseki, a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture.