Shihan Yokota, 9th dan, was born in 1947 in the city of Kobe, Japan and has

extensive martial arts experience of more than 60 years. Not only does he have the
mastery of Shotokan (JKA and Asai) Karate, he has also studied other styles of
karate; Goju-Ryu and Kyokushinkai. He is also familiar with the art of Judo and
Ki. He has experience with Kobudo (weapons) too; Nunchaku, Sai, Nanasetsuben
(7 chain whip), and others to deepen and supplement his knowledge and skills in
Karate-do.

Yokota started his martial arts training in 1957 when he was 10 years old. He
started taking lessons in Judo at the Hyogo Prefecture Police station, where he met
a fellow student who also practiced karate. (This student was practicing Judo to
further improve his fighting skills.) Yokota was so impressed by him that although
he had been training in Judo for three years, he made the decision to switch his
training to Karate. Yokota, thus, joined the JKA Prefecture headquarters in Kobe
and started his training in Karate-do in 1961.

In 1973, Yokota moved to Philadelphia, PA where he was a full time instructor at

the ISKF headquarters, as well as a personal assistant to late Teruyuki Okazaki,
10th dan, ISKF Founder. Yokota was one of the top competitors in the East Coast
Regional Tournaments in the 1970’s. In 1981, he returned to his hometown of
Kobe to complete his instructor’s training under the late Jun Sugano, 9th dan, JKA
Vice Chairman. While in Japan, Yokota competed in the Prefecture tournament
and won the championship two years in a row. He represented his prefecture and
competed in the JKA All National Championship in Tokyo in 1981 and 1982. He
was also chosen as one of the competitors for All Japan Athletic Championship
(Kokutai) in Shiga Prefecture in 1982.

After completing the JKA instructor’s training, Yokota moved to the San
Francisco, USA in 1983 to teach in Mountain View, CA. He received his Godan
from late Nakayama in 1987 right before he passed away.

In 2001 he resigned from JKA after 40 years of membership to follow late Master
Asai (JKS). Yokota received his Roku-dan from Master Asai. After passing of
Master Asai, he resigned from JKS in 2009 and establish his own organization,
ASAI (Asai Shotokan Association International) in 2010. He is the founder and
World Chief Instructor of ASAI as well as the President of ASAI Shihankai.
Yokota is also an author of five karate books: Shotokan Myths, Shotokan
Mysteries, Shotokan Transcendence, Karatedo Paradigm Shift and Karatedo
Quantum Leap (all available from Amazon). He is 74 years old (in July 2021) but
he trains 4 to 5 hours every day to keep his karate skills. Yokota also travels
around the world to teach Asai ryu karate and to promote budo karate to the
members as well as the non-member karate practitioners.