ABOUT THE AUTHOR

STEPHEN EARLE has been a student of Japanese language and East Asian culture and history for almost fifty years. He lived and worked in Japan continuously for sixteen years during the 1970s and ‘80s and has visited frequently since. He has also lived and worked in China and Singapore and travelled extensively in East, Southeast, and South Asia. He estimates he has crossed the Pacific Ocean more than 250 times.

Following a forty-year career in international business, during which he served in executive capacities and on the boards of several Japanese and U.S. corporations, Earle retired in 2015 to write. Heaven’s Wind is his second book. His first, Words Characters and Transparency: An Introduction to the Art and Science of KOTOHA, was self-published in 2003. He is also co-translator, with Josh Drachman, of A Light on Transmission: The Teachings of Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido by Mitsugi Saotome.

Earle and his wife, Akemi, live in Richmond, Virginia, where he teaches aikido and she teaches Japanese language. They have two children and three grandchildren.