Born and raised in Japan, Mr. Jiro Harasaki graduated from Hosei University with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He then graduated from International Christian University with a BA in English Literature. After 14 years of teaching in Japan, he moved to the US to pursue a master’s degree from Columbia University where he specialized in Japanese pedagogy. For a long time, he has been enjoying Rakugo, a Japanese traditional art of storytelling. He is especially interested in how the Japanese language is used in Rakugo and has studied by listening to hundreds of Rakugo performances to do his research. He also has great interest in literature and is an avid reader of all genres of literature.