Daiji Kataoka

Originally from Tokyo, Daiji has been teaching Japanese in New Zealand high schools for the past 15 years. His passion is to share the joy of learning other languages and cultures with students, as well as providing them opportunities to connect with people from different cultures and countries.

Daiji has organised and led a number of Japanese exchange programmes. His most recent trips include a 2018 Kapa Haka tour and a 2019 Rugby World Cup tour that took his school's First XV boys and community members to tour four cities in Japan, playing rugby against high profile schools in Japan and watching the All Blacks vs Canada game at a Japanese stadium.

Through the Champions programme, Daiji would like to meet people who share the same passion and look for opportunities to connect and collaborate with them for future projects.