Parents’ beliefs are an important part of children´s developmental context. The beliefs that parents hold form an organized and culturally shared set of ideas, ethnotheories (e.g. Harkness & Super 1996). Japanese and Finnish cultures are similar in several ways, for example, in both countries population is ageing and birth rates are low, however, in these two cultures the traditional ways and generational roots of thinking are different (e.g. Valaskivi & Hoikkala 2006, 214-215). The focus of the research are parental ethnotheories concerning adult-child relationships in child-rearing and upbringing. The specific question to be dealt with in this presentation is: How do the interviewed mothers describe adult-child relationships? The data consist of semi-structured interviews. Four Japanese mothers and four Finnish mothers were interviewed at their homes. The Japanese mothers were interviewed with the help of an interpreter. The data were analysed qualitatively. Expected findings will consist of similarities and differences in the beliefs of the interviewed Japanese and Finnish mothers. Highlighted will be the fact that cultural comparisons, within and outside European context, make cultures, including our own, visible.