NAOKO TAKANO
高野 直子

After her guraduation, she started her carrier at Recruit co, LTD as an interviewer.
In 1996, she joined Bronze Publishing as an editor. Since then, during her 20+ year career in publishing, among these include Natural Cleaning, which ignited a safe, eco-friendly cleaning method movement in Japan. It went on to become a best-seller, with seven books that followed.
In 1999, she represented the Bologna Children's Book Fair. She focused on expanding international publications. And was instrumental in acquiring the rights to several titles from North America and Europe. Among them were the Lisa and Gaspard series, published by Hachette Livre (France), which became best-sellers in Japan. To date, the Lisa and Gaspard series produced 40 titles in Japanese. In total, the series sold over 2 million copies.

In 2003, Bronze Publishing established their international division with Naoko as their director. She introduced Bronze's Japanese titles to the international publishing world and was met with great success. Over two hundred of Bronze's Japanese titles were translated in 19 languages. This includes the Scribble Book by Gomi Taro, which has been translated into eighteen languages. Over the years, Scribble and Gomi's other works have become beloved all over the world.

Bronze has become an internationally recognized publisher in the twenty years since its founding their international division. It has published and represented many renowned Japanese authors such as Shinsuke Yoshitake, tupera tupera, and Akiko Miyakoshi. In 2016, Bronze Publishing was a nominee for the Bologna Book Fair’s BOP Prize (Bologna Prize for the Best Children's Publishers of the Year) in the Asia category. And in 2017, Shinsuke Yoshitake’s Still Stuck was published 10 languages and this title was awarded a Special Mention in the fiction section of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair’s Ragazzi Awards.

Naoko will continue to use her extensive experience as an international publishing coordinator and an editorial advisor in the Asia region. She will be holding seminars on editing in countries such as Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia. Naoko will also support editors in Asia as an editorial advisor.