Sakuji Tanaka
Rotary Club of Yashio, Saitama, Japan
Director, Rotary International 2003-2005
Trustee, The Rotary Foundation 2006-2008
District Governor, D2770, 1994-95
For 32 years, Sakuji Tanaka was President of Tanaka Company Ltd, a wholesale firm which went public in 1995 and later merged with other leading wholesalers in Japan. He has also been Chairman of Daika Company and was President of the National Hoiusehold Papers Distribution Association for eight years. He has also served as Vice President of the Yashio City Chamber of Commerce. He studied business at Nihon Management Daigakuin and Tokyo Management Daigakuin.
A member of the Rotary Club of Yashio since its charter in 1975, he has served RI as a Director, District Governor, Training Leader and Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator. He has also served as a Trustee of The Rotary Foundation. He was Chairman of the 2009 Birmingham Convention Committee.
With his District, he has travelled to Bangladesh where he has helped in the construction of school buildings.
He is the recipient of Rotary International's Service Above Self Award and The Rotary Foundation's Distringuished Service Award. He and his wife Kyoko are Paul Harris Fellows, Benefactors of the Permanent Fund and Major Donors. Sakuji has also established the Endowed World Peace Fellowship for the Rotary Foundation.
Sakuji and Kyoko have three children and five grandchildren and live in Yashio, Saitama, Japan.
He would like to see Rotary "continue its vital work as the force to improve our communities". Sakuji has said that eradicating polio will "fulfil the promise we made to children in the world".
Source: Rotary International News
