Akibo was born on May 19, 1971 in Osaka, Japan. His mother, Booja Chun (also known as Tomiko Takahara) was a second generation Korean living in Japan, and his father, Byoung Yeun Koh (also known as Shigesaku Takahara) had been raised in Korea and come to Japan in junior high school. Akibo had both a Korean name “Kyoung Bo Koh” and a Japanese name (based off of the same kanji or characters) “Akibo Takahara.” The name Akibo was an unusual name in Japan - his grandfather had selected the name by consulting with a fortune teller to find a lucky set of characters. Akibo was the oldest of three children – he had two sisters, Nami and Koomi. Akibo grew up in Higashi Osaka, an industrial town just east of Osaka. When he was little, he often played with the bigger boys in the neighborhood, so he had a lot of stories about getting in trouble or doing risky things with them, like sneaking into a toy factory in his neighborhood on the weekend to try to play with the toys. Once when playing baseball, they broke a car window with the ball. Everyone ran away, but as the youngest guy in the group he couldn’t keep up with them, and he was caught from behind by the irate car owner, who accidently ripped his shirt trying to grab him as he ran away. The man felt so bad, he brought him a new t-shirt the next day. Akibo went to Konomi Gakuen for preschool, Kashida elementary school, and Kashida junior high school, then Osaka Dentsu high school which had a math focus and he had more than one math class every day. He wasn’t able to pass the entrance exam for college, so he spent a year at a special school called a Yobiko preparing to take the exam again. When he didn’t pass again, he got a part-time job but he continued studying on his own until he passed the next year and entered into the night school at Kinki University, and transferred into the regular program as soon as he was able. He was proud of this achievement as many people would have given up along the way in the face of so much discouragement. Akibo met Erika in August 1992 at a nightclub, when she asked him to dance. He didn’t speak much English (just what he’d learned in school), and Erika didn’t yet speak any Japanese, having just arrived to Japan a few weeks before. He always planned activities for them to do on their first dates to avoid the awkward silence that could come from having to spend most of the time talking. Luckily, both quickly improved in their respective language skills. Upon graduating from college, Akibo pursued the job he wanted most – at a small import/export trading company. The CEO didn’t really want a fresh college graduate but finally gave in to Akibo’s determination, and hired him. Akibo often worked 12 hour or more days and travelled to the US and China to oversee multi-national projects and the building of a factory there. Akibo had secured the job he wanted and was potentially in line to eventually take over the company from the owner who saw him as his protégé. Despite this, he agreed to leave his job, his country, and his family, when Erika asked him to follow her back to the US after 5 years of dating. It meant starting all over again – going back to school, studying English, and getting an internship to get his foot in the door on employment. He eventually worked for a business incubator and then Aplix Corp. of America, where he worked for 8 years as a technical account manager. Akibo and Erika got married October 7, 2000 in Sausalito. Five years later, they welcomed their first son, Lucas Yo Koh and then in 2008, their second son Cody Myo Koh. Akibo especially selected the boy's middle names based on characters that had the same sound in both Japanese and Korean to reflect his heritage. Yo means bright or brilliant, and Myo is a cluster of stars in the constellation of Taurus. Akibo's role as father was his most cherished one. He devoted all his time and energy to his two boys. In February 2011, he was first diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer. He faced his disease with the same determination and drive he always showed and never gave up having as normal a life as possible. Despite multiple surgeries, radiation treatment, months of chemotherapy and more, Akibo spent every moment he could with his children -- at the park, the beach, the zoo, at soccer games, at home. He took his family to Japan for a month in 2012, where he showed his kids everything he loved about growing up in Japan. Akibo passed away at home early in the morning of August 31, 2013 at the age of 42.