Japanese teacher and sinophile heads home

Xi'an (CNS) – A Japanese teacher, Shigeru Yamada, flew back to Japan yesterday from Xi'an after living in China and teachng Japanese free of charge for more than ten years.

Shigeru Yamada was enthusiastic about Chinese culture, especially the culture of the Han and Tang dynasties. Yamada had a routine life in China frequently visiting the library to learn Chinese history in the mornings and handwriting more than 30 books about such topics as the history of printing and papermaking technology.

Over 20 students of his are now working for Japanese enterprises or studying in Japan. The teacher's only income is 1 million yen (about US$ 13,000) he receives as a pension every year.

Yamada was diagnosed with terminal intestinal cancer on January 11 this year.