Professor Shoko Hamano has taught Japanese to university students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Harvard University, and George Washington University. She has also taught elementary school children at Alexander D. Henderson University School in Florida. Her publications include Nihongo no Onomatope: Onshoochoo to koozoo [Japanese sound symbolism and its structure] (Kurosio 2014), The Sound-Symbolic System of Japanese (CSLI, 1998); “Voicing of Obstruents in Old Japanese” in the Journal of East Asian Linguistics (2000); Making Sense of Japanese Grammar (University of Hawaii Press, 2002), Basic Japanese: A Grammar and Workbook (Routledge, 2010), and Intermediate Japanese: A Grammar and Workbook (Routledge, 2012). She wrote the last two books with Professor Takae Tsujioka, who is team-teaching SY22-23 Japanese Plus with her.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan selected Professor Hamano with the Foreign Minister’s Commendation for FY 2023. She received the Commendation in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the promotion of Japanese language education in the United States of America.

Hamano-sensei received the award from Deputy Chief of Mission Minister Koichi Ai at the Embassy of Japan on December 12, 2023. Several members of Japanese Plus were in attendance. Read D’Amonie Armstrong blog post on the evening here.