The Girl who Wanted to be 'Olivia' now Reports on the World for CNN

 

CNN's Hanako Montgomery once tried to hide her mixed heritage. Now she calls it her greatest professional strength – and a lesson in self-acceptance.

 

As a schoolgirl in New York, Hanako Montgomery wrote the name "Olivia" in her notebook, hoping to escape an identity that made her feel different. Today, the CNN international correspondent says her mixed Japanese and American heritage is the foundation of her career.

 

Montgomery, who is based in Japan, spoke to us at CNN's Global Perspectives: In Bangkok event on Wednesday, 14 October, the network's first live Global Perspectives event in Asia. She was due to moderate a session with Maggie Kang, co-director and co-creator of the hit animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters.

 

 

"I hated the fact that I was Japanese"

Montgomery was born in London and moved to New York at the age of two. Japanese was her first language.

 

"I actually couldn't speak English for the first three or four years of my life because I only spoke to my mom," she said.

 

Her father worked long hours. She attended American school from Monday to Friday and Japanese school on Saturdays.

 

"Ever since I was a kid, I went to school six days a week," she said. As the only Asian in many of her classrooms, she began to feel like an outsider.

 

"I really wanted to be white. I wanted to fit in with everybody else," she said. "I wanted to not go to Japanese school on a Saturday, and I wanted to play with my friends." She stopped studying Japanese.

 

Summer visits to Japan brought no relief. "Everybody was like, 'Oh, look, there's a foreigner and there's a white person,'" she recalled. "I always felt like I wasn't part of any one culture."

 

 

 

The teacher who changed everything

The turning point came in her teens, when a teacher at her Saturday school helped her reconnect with her heritage. In an opinion piece for CNN, Montgomery wrote that her teacher, then, got her to sing Japanese pop songs in class.

 

Montgomery says the teacher understood her struggle because her own sons were half Japanese and half African American.

 

"One of my teachers at Japanese school made me fall in love with my culture again," Montgomery said. "She kind of understood the cultural difficulties that I was going through."

 

As she grew older, that relationship deepened. "As I started developing this intimate relationship with Japan, I started to feel like I belonged."

 

 

Turning identity into an advantage

Montgomery now sees her background as a professional tool. Because she speaks fluent Japanese, she conducts her own interviews without a translator. That, she says, eases the burden on her producers and allows a closer connection with the people she meets.

 

"I can kind of react to what they're saying in real time. I can pick up on their emotions more easily," she said.

 

Having learnt about Japan from outside the country, she added, she brings "a slightly different perspective" and "cultural fluency" built up over the years. She credits her mother.

 

"I'm very happy that my mom taught me how to speak Japanese, because if I didn't have that, then I honestly would not be here today."

 

Her sense of self remains fluid, she says. "When I'm in a room full of other white Americans, I feel more Asian. And when I'm in a room full of Japanese people, I feel more white," she said.

 

"Sometimes I'll feel a little bit more Japanese in my temperament. I'll want to read a Japanese book instead of an English book."

 

 

 

 

 

That, she believes, makes her a better journalist.

 

"It allows me to see that people aren't just the country that they're from. They're not just the passport that they carry. They are deeply complex and they change based on the experiences that they live."

 

 

Belonging in a changing world

Montgomery's personal experience informs her views on a wider debate. In her opinion piece, she wrote that attitudes towards foreign residents in Japan have hardened under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's government, with tighter permanent residency requirements and rising application fees.

 

She cited a 2025 Japanese government survey in which nearly half of foreign residents reported some form of discrimination. She told us that treatment of foreigners in Japan varies by background.

 

People from wealthy countries tend to enjoy more freedom, she said, while those from minority backgrounds or religions may face racism.

 

Tougher visa and language rules, she warned, mean that only those who can afford the paperwork will be able to live, study or run businesses in Japan. "That has generated a lot of backlash," she said.

 

Her op-ed argues that the world is moving towards greater diversity "whether politicians like it or not" and suggests belonging may one day depend "less on blood and more on personal choice".

 

She sees a similar story in K-Pop Demon Hunters, whose lead character, Rumi, hides her half-demon identity before learning to embrace it. Montgomery said she was excited to speak to Kang, who is Korean Canadian, because of their shared experience.

 

"There are lots of similarities between the way she tells stories and how she believes in her culture, in the same way I feel about Japan," she said. "I'm just very excited to hear and get tips from her about how to tell the most authentic stories for everybody."

 

 

Reporting with respect

Montgomery spent 10 to 11 days in Nepal reporting on devastating floods. She said the disaster showed why countries must cooperate. Nepal's prime minister has called for China, India and Nepal to share real-time data on glacial lake flooding and other climate-related disasters.

 

"Climate catastrophes affect everybody," she said. "No one can do it alone. Everybody needs to pitch in. Everybody needs to work together for the common good, regardless of borders, regardless of faith, race, regardless of caste."

 

She is equally passionate about the people behind the headlines.

 

"I get to talk to important and influential political figures, but also I get to talk to people I would never meet in my life," she said.

 

Of the Nepali villagers who lost everything, she added, "The time and space that they gave to us to be interviewed is such a privilege and an honour, and I want to continue respecting that."

 

 

Looking ahead

Montgomery has no single project in mind, but she is optimistic about Asia.

 

"I truly believe that it is the centre of the world in many aspects when it comes to business, culture," she said. "I'm almost a little bit upset that the West is only now waking up and realising that Asia has so much growth and so much potential, creativity and diversity."

 

She hopes to return to Thailand to continue "highlighting real issues that affect real people". For girls who feel they do not fit in, her own story offers reassurance. The part of herself she once tried to bury turned out to be her greatest asset.

 

"Identity is very fluid," she said. "It really depends on the day and the person I'm with."