Love Upon the Chopping Board is a touching book that tells the story of an international, inter-generational relationship between a Japanese lesbian activist and her Australian lover. It also manages to detail some of Japan's under-publicized lesbian history. However, this work's greatest success comes from putting a human face on the struggle for acceptance that people of alternative sexualities face, on both a legal and personal front. A translation of Izumo's earlier work in Japanese, Manaita no ue no koi (a clever play on words, since the word koi means either 'love' or 'carp', hence the phrase "carp upon the chopping board", or, in this case, "love upon the chopping board"), Love Upon the Chopping Board contains both Izumo's and Maree's essays, roughly alternating in chapters. Both authors tackle the questions of identity, family, and cultural differences in their unique ways, but centred on the struggle for them to live together as a family unit. At one point, for Maree to stay in Japan with Izumo, they contemplate many options, from the possibility of a paper marriage to a man (summarily rejected, of course) to Izumo adopting Maree as her daughter. Even after the visa problem is taken care of, there is still the legal issue of what would happen were Izumo to die, and the travails of renting a house in Tokyo, when one partner is a foreigner and the two of them are not seen as a "proper family" by most real estate agents. Throughout these challenges, Izumo and Maree rely on the strength of their love for each other to see them through. They are also the first lesbians in Japan to co-author a "Joint-Living Agreement", a document which allows them to have a say in what will happen, legally, when one of them dies.

Another aspect of this narrative chronicles the activist efforts of the Japanese lesbian and gay community for greater visibility and acceptance. Izumo details the history of the movement from her perspective as a lesbian from the mid 1970s to the present, as well as commenting on some of the notable lesbians relationships in Japanese history. Sadly, many of these have been dismissed by historians, and, in some cases, the women themselves, as unimportant or trivial. Izumo's work goes some way to remedying this oversight and seeks to portray these women and their relationships in a more inclusive light. In the end, though, Izumo's and Maree's relationship is the "love upon the chopping board", under scrutiny and in question from all sides. This book is a powerful testament to their commitment to one another, as well as giving voice to their conflicts, triumphs, and ever-present dedication to their cause.