Born in Japan and raised in various cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, London, New York, Beirut, Los Angeles, and Santa Barbara, Yasu is bicultural as well as bilingual. Formal education includes a degree in Economics from UCLA, and a professional photography degree from Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, California. Upon graduating from Brooks Institute, he worked with New York photographer Carl Fischer. Returning to Japan in 1984, he immediately began his photography business in Tokyo where he shot for both advertising and editorial magazines as well as corporate annual reports. Although his specialty is in producing high quality images of people in high places, he equally enjoys producing top quality images of products and fashion. In 1997 Yasu took a break from still photography to study film production at New York University's Film School. Consequently he joined forces with a prominent software entrepreneur to start up a film production house that produced television commercials, sales promo videos, and media events for the software company. Following the public offering of the software company, an internet broadcast portal site was created and Yasu produced over 200 video contents for streaming over the internet which included a private interview with the current prime minister of Japan, Mr. Koizumi. In 2002, Yasu returned to his roots in photography where he has traveled to Switzerland, Austria, and Ireland to shoot editorial pictures. With 20 years of experience behind you can expect reliable, high quality images while communicating in English with Yasu.