Keiko Itoh, writer and interpreter, was born in Kobe, Japan. She left Japan after high school for higher education in the USA. After receiving her MA from Yale University, she worked for the United Nations in New York. She came to England in 1991 and worked at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the World Bank London Office as a media and public relations officer. She returned to university in 1995, and received a PhD in history from the London School of Economics.