Born in Kagoshima in 1957, Haruo KUBOZONO studied English at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies, English linguistics at Nagoya University, and linguistics and phonetics at the University of Edinburgh (PhD 1988). He taught linguistics at Nanzan University, Osaka University of Foreign Studies and Kobe University before he was appointed as professor at the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics  (NINJAL). He is now Professor Emeritus and Invited Professor at the Institute. He recently edited Handbook of Japanese Phonetics and Phonology (De Gruyter Mouton) and The Phonetics and Phonology of Geminate Consonants (Oxford University Press).