The Ones Left Behind: The Plight of Single Mothers in Japan

Rionne McAvoy is a documentary filmmaker originally from Australia’s Gold Coast. Now based in Tokyo for over 17 years, he is fully bilingual in English aand Japanese. He first visited Japan at 19 for an 8-week karate training trip and later returned to live and work there, including time with a Japanese host family. He completed a Japanese language degree at Griffith University, studied as an exchange student at Seikei University, and then returned to Japan, where he has lived since.

A keen martial artist, Rionne has worked in Japan’s film industry for over a decade and is also a professional wrestler under the ring name Rionne Fujiwara. His debut documentary, The Ones Left Behind, has won multiple overseas festival awards and continues to spotlight the need to improve living conditions for single parents in Japan and globally.