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Positions

President

Candidates

Profile
I have been teaching Japanese at Kapiolani Community College since 1997. I served as the
Coordinator of the Japanese Language Program and the Coordinator of American Sign Language,
Hawaiian, and Foreign Languages at KCC. I was awarded the Regents Medal for Excellence in
Teaching by the UH Board of Regents in 2011. I also served Treasurer of Hawaii Association of
Language Teachers (HALT) 2003-7.

Yukio Kataoka
I hold an MA in Japanese Language and Literature from the Ohio State University.
As the president, I would like to continue to work on making HATJ a stronger and more solid
organization where members are actively involved in professional development and advocating for
Japanese language education.

Vice President/
Membership
Secretary
B.A. Aichi Prefectural University (English linguistics)
Tokyo Central Japanese Language School
Masahiro Yamaguchi has been teaching Japanese language and working as a Globalism
Coordinator at Sacred Hearts Academy since 2001. He also has been teaching ESL since 2011.
Before he started his teaching career in Hawaii, he taught English (ESL) at a high school in Japan
from 1991 to 2001.

Treasurer

Masahiro
Yamaguchi

Yamaguchi coordinated and chaperoned students trip to Japan. He coached Japan Bowl and
Japan Wizards Competition winning teams in 2003 and 2006 as well as Radio
KZOOs Japanese Speech Contest participants.
Yamaguchi served as Private High School Representative from 2005 to 2007. And, he has been
serving HATJ as a Treasurer since January 2014.
Besides serving as treasurer, Yamaguchi has been eagerly participating in HATJs monthly
Benkyo-kai, supporting and cooperating with HATJ President Mr. Kataoka and other board
members for the benefits of HATJ members and students in Hawaii.
After serving one term, he would like to serve another term for HATJ with clearer vision

and goals to help and support our students to prepare for their futures and k-16 articulation.

Web Master

Representative:
K-12 (public)

Representative:
K-12 (private)
Representative:
College/
University (public)
Representative:
College/
University
(private)

Elena Yoo

Kazuyo Kitaguchi

Lisa Kobuke

My name is Elena Yoo. I teach Japanese language at Hawaii Baptist Academy (high school). I
am also the current webmaster of HATJ. My background is the technical translation and business
consulting. HATJ and AATJ have provided me with wonderful learning and networking
opportunities and allowed me to be the lifelong-learner. The fellowship and interaction with the
other teachers have been invaluable and truly humbling. During the last term, I had so much fun
serving as the webmaster creating HATJs new website, updating Facebook pages, among other
things. My goals for the next term include opening the HATJs official Twitter account, starting
HATJs Karaoke video contest, and continue to make HATJ as the driving force for advocating
Japanese language education in Hawaii and beyond. Thank you for your support!

Kazuyo Kitaguchi has been teaching Japanese in Hawaii since 2001. She is currently
teaching at Roosevelt High School and has taught all levels of Japanese courses
including Advanced Japanese and Business Japanese for Travel and Tourism. She
serves as an acting representative for public schools K-12 and advocates as the voice of
the public school Japanese teachers I board meetings.

Lisa Kobuke is Assistant Professor of Japanese Language and Literature at Kapiolani Community
College. She has been the Japanese Language Coordinator since Fall 2012. She also serves as
the Japanese Language Representative (Fall 2009 - present) of the Hawaii Association of
Language Teachers (HALT).

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