Bio

Charles Burress has written about Japan- related topics for the San Francisco Chronicle, where he was a staff writer
for 25 years, and several other publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Asian Wall Street Journal, Japanese
Newsweek, International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, Chuo Koron, Journalism (journal published by the Asahi
newspaper company), Japan Times, Winds (JAL magaz ine) and others.
He was a visiting researcher in Japan for a total of three years: on a Fulbright scholarship in 1996- 97 at the
University of Tokyo, on an Abe Fellowship in 1999- 2000 at the University of Tokyo, and again on a Fulbright
scholarship in 2005- 06 at the University of Tokyo and Keio University. He has received numerous journalism
awards, served as a judge for journalism contests and taught as a lecturer for a class on covering Japan at the
Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California at Berkeley. He left the Chronicle in 2009 and worked
nearly four years as an editor for AOL’s national network of Patch news sites. He then served two and a half years
as Director of Communications for the Mayor’s Office in Berkeley, CA, and three years as the Public Information
Officer for Berkeley public schools. He holds a master’s in journalism from UC Berkeley and bachelor’s in
government from Harvard