Wolfgang Hadamitzky is a librarian of the East Asia section of the Berlin State Library. He has worked in Oslo and Tokyo on the staff of the German Cultural Institute (Goethe Institute).
Mark Spahn has a background in mathematics, engineering, and computer science. He has worked in Japan as a teacher, computer magazine writer, programmer, and translator. He presently resides in the United States, where he is active as a translator and consultant. Other titles by the same authors include A Guide to Writing Kanji and Kana (Tuttle Publishing) and The Kanji Dictionary (Tuttle Publishing).