As the first stage in a larger project comparing mother-daughter relationships in Japan and Hong Kong, we conducted focus group discussions with mothers and adult daughters. Our sample included heterosexually-identified and lesbian-identified adult daughters, and mothers of heterosexually-identified daughters and those of lesbian-identified daughters. In this paper, we focus on the daughters, analyzing their practices of intimacy through monetary gifts, emotional closeness, and gendered labor. In each of these, we pay attention to the impact of the sexual orientation of the daughters and the role of the partner on the relationship between mothers and daughters and on gendered familial expectations. In the conclusion, we reflect critically on the implications of the current analysis on extant and future research, particularly with respect to the concepts and framework of analysis.