Tokyo Explorer

Mark A Buckton: Mark Buckton(Editor) first touched down on Japanese shores in the late winter of 1996/97 with just 18,000 yen in his pocket, a single, outdated guide book to his name, and far too few clothes for the near-blizzard he flew into. Initially on his way back to his home in the UK after a long holiday spent in Australia upon completion of six years service in the British Royal Air Force that enabled him to travel over much of Europe, Scandinavia, into North America, Turkey and Iraq, he liked what he saw in Japan, saw what he liked, and started putting down roots. A little over a decade later, Buckton is a long-term resident of northern Tokyo, a professional teacher and sumo columnist for Japan’s only independent English language newspaper – The Japan Times. He is also founder and Editor-in-Chief of the multi-lingual Sumo Fan Magazine; a post in which he is often called upon by global news agencies to comment on Japan’s national sport. He has long contributed to magazines and newspapers throughout Japan, in Asia, North America and Europe on issues related to Japanese culture, history and sport, and worked with Shochiku Co., Ltd. as part of the English language presentation by the company for trips by prominent Kabuki actors (Ichikawa) Danjuro and (Nakamura) Kanzaburo to Paris, France and New York and Washington D.C. in the USA in 2007. Originally from north-west England, but now committed to Tokyo and Japan, Buckton enjoys letting work overlap with leisure by studying Japanese history, and attending both sumo and kabuki in a private capacity in his limited ‘off-time.’ He is also currently learning the written form of Hangul – the language of Korea.