Mr. Koichi Sano

Teacher of Japanese Language
Abraham Lincoln High School
San Francisco, California

Mr. Koichi Charles Sano was born and raised in Mishima, Japan. Fascinated by American culture and its language, he moved to the U.S. to continue his education, receiving a B.A. in Linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a single subject teaching credential from San Francisco State University.

Koichi is currently teaching 2nd year, 3rd year Honors, and AP Japanese at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco. He has been teaching at the school since 1992 and serving as Department Chair of World Languages since 1999. Over the last 24 years, he has developed a small part time program into a program with over 200 students and 2 full time teachers. Koichi has also established numerous cultural exchange programs with high schools in Shizuoka and Aomori Prefectures as well as program sponsorships with organizations such as Hino Motors and Sankei Press of Japan.

A strong advocate for building relationships with and among the students he serves, he involves all of them in the school’s Japanese Culture Club to further promote mutual understanding between Americans and Japanese. In 2011, Koichi and the Japanese Culture Club were honored with an Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award and a School Spirit Award by Asian Week Foundation for launching a successful Operation N.I.N.J.A. (Now In Need of Japan Aid) fundraiser which has raised over $17,000 to date. Most recently, he participated in piloting the IUC (Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Study) 3/11 Manga Project lesson developed by Mr. Norman Masuda.