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The 48-year-old was born in Tokyo, Japan, and now lives in Roundhay with her husband Mark, who is head of the School of Modern Languages and Culture at Leeds University, and their three children, Naomi, 20, Ken, 16, and Marie, 11.

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The couple met when Mark was teaching in Japan.
Ikuko, who has a degree in Intercultural Communication and an MA in cross-cultural communication, now works as a curate at St Agnes Church in Burmantofts and St Cyprian Church in Harehills but for ten years she taught Japanese at evening classes at Joseph Priestley College in Morley.

"I had a very happy childhood and I never imagined I would leave Japan, I was very close to my parents and felt rooted there. I quite liked learning English as a foreign language and I was curious about other people, but I didn't want to live anywhere else but Tokyo.

"I know what it is like to be in a minority. We moved to southern California for five years when I was 15 because my father got a job there and it made me realise what it is like to be in a minority, which was a good lesson to learn. Unless you are put in that position it is hard to know what it feels like to be on the outside. At first my English was useless and I felt I looked so odd as well, so it was horrible at first

"The cultures of Japan and America are so different, and Britain is somewhere between the two. In Japan it's all about how to be a cooperative member of the group, about fitting in and not standing out.
In Japan if there is a misunderstanding between two people then the recipient of the message feels guilty for not being sensitive enough to pick up cues.
The worst label you can get is that you are egotistical or self-centred, but in America you have to assert yourself as an individual.
British culture is more like Japanese in that there is a long historical tradition, both good and bad.

"I was brought up a Christian which is unusual in Japan where only one per cent of the population are Christian.
I never talked about it as a child because I didn't want to stand out, but it stayed with me.
While living in America I began to think more consciously about my faith.

"I had my days of early mothehood in Japan for which I am grateful. Motherhood is a revered part of life in Japan and most women give up work and devote several years to being a mother.

"I like Leeds, I have found it very welcoming.
It is enough of a cosmopolitan city for there to be people here who have lived in different places and know what it is like to move around, but I had never heard of it before Mark was offered a job teaching at Leeds University and I was scared about coming here.
We thought it would be for a couple of years but that was almost 20 years ago and my two younger children were born at St James's Hospital in Leeds. Basically, I feel that God has put me here.


"The best thing about my new job will be, I hope, that other people will see me as someone beyond racial and cultural boundaries now that I have been ordained. I have always felt the need to be a bit of a chameleon in the past, to suss the ways to be more like an English person. It's almost subconscious but I feel the need to fit in - as a human being we want to be accepted.

"The best piece of advice I ever received came from my father-in-law, who was a doctor in a hospice, and was a reversal of the usual phrase. He said: "Don't just do something, sit there." He was saying that we equate being busy with being worthy, but actually it is important to remember to be still.

"The last time I cried was a few days ago, with my eldest daughter. A lot had happened all at once, I was trying to do too much and just became overwhelmed. I'd had a row with my daughter too but in the end she was very good. Like most people, I can get rundown and depressed at times.

"My most embarrassing moment was in Amsterdam. There is a four hour, middle-of-the-night layover there when travelling from Japan to England, which I was doing with the children. We fell asleep and missed the plane, which led to a nightmare journey. I felt embarrassed because I should have made sure that didn't happen.

"My philosophy on life is to have the right sort of humility, and to trust in God.

"I feel a burden of guilt about the way prisoners of war were treated by the Japanese during the Second World War and I worry about how to make amends. I am involved with an organisation that holds services of reconciliation attended by both British and Japanese former soldiers. I listen to their stories, and in my everyday life I try to build up trust.

"The person I would most like to meet, apart from Jesus which sounds like a bit of a cop-out, is footballer Tony Adams. I saw him play in the 1998 World Cup in France. I think he is a fascinating character, he was one of the few people to talk to David Beckham and comfort him after he was sent off against Argentina. He has also acknowledged his own need of help in the past and tried to help others.

"It might surprise people to know that I can get really fanatical about team sports. I think it is probably the Japanese thing about team sports. Also, I play African drums.

"My first love was when I was at primary school in Japan. He was the most popular boy in our class, everyone fancied him. He told me I was his third favourite girl - and I was actually chuffed!


"This is my joke, told to me by my children: There are two ducks in a pond, one turns to the other and says: "Quack" and the other says, "That's amazing, I was just going to say that."


Favourite things:

Food: Japanese marinated and grilled eel
Television: News or Match of the Day
Author: Shusaku Endo, a Japanese Catholic author
Film: Any romantic comedy
Star sign: Libra