Pre-Japan, May read philosophy at University College London before spending several years working for a large UK bank as an Information Systems Auditor.

Japan had been a lifelong interest and he came to the country in 1992.

May has spent a total of 5 years publishing and editing magazines, which taught him much about the country and how to get things done.

He has extensive experience writing keitai (mobile phone) websites in English and Japanese and has consulted on them to Japanese companies.

In addition he has worked as a technical facilitator/guide for Japanese software companies with projects in the UK., as a guide for foreigners in Kyushu, Shikoku and south west Japan and taught Business English and English negotiation skills to Japanese companies.

Plus much else.

His Japanese is "functional" rather than elegant, but he has excellent communication skills in the spoken language.

He enjoys Noh, good food, hot sake and discreet onsen.

May conceived and wrote the Japan Maps Google Maps mashup diddlefinger.com which allows one to locate Japanese addresses in English on a map with English language labels. (This feature is not offered by Google Japan itself...)