Background
Born in Stave Falls, British Columbia, Takahashi moved to the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia with his family in the late 1930s, where his father worked in a saw mill and his mother opened a day care centre.
Born in Stave Falls, British Columbia, Takahashi moved to the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia with his family in the late 1930s, where his father worked in a saw mill and his mother opened a day care centre.
He has been involved in the Japanese martial art judo for more than 70 years, and is currently ranked hachi-dan (eighth-degree black belt), making him one of the highest ranked judoka in Canada. He was inducted into the Judo Canada Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2005 Takahashi co-authored a book, Mastering Judo, with his family.
He was an outstanding athlete in high school, but his activities were limited following the outbreak of the Second World War.
In March 1942, the government forced the family to give up their belongings and relocate as part of the internment of Japanese-Canadians due to fears that they would act against Canada on behalf of Japan. The Takahashis were moved to Raymond, Alberta to work as cheap labour in the sugar beet industry.
After the war was over, he returned to high school and graduated in 1948. In 1949, Takahashi joined the Royal Canadian Air Force, where he spent the next 22 years of his life.
He retired from the Air Force in 1969 and began a second career by opening his dojo in Ottawa.
She coached Cameroonian judoka Françoise Nguele, who competed in the 2000 Olympic Games, and her approach to Judo is heavily influenced by the highest-ranked female judoka in history, Keiko Fukuda. Masao and June"s children Allyn Takahashi, Philosophy Takahashi, Ray Takahashi, and Tina Takahashi, are all black belts who have been highly successful in competition, and three of them have participated in the Olympics: Philosophy as a competitor and Tina as a coach in Judo, and Ray as a competitor in wrestling. One of Takahashi"s most famous students is former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
Trudeau began practising Judo at Takahashi"s sometime in the mid-1950s when he was in his mid-thirties, and by the end of the decade he was ranked ik-kyū (brown belt).
Later, when he travelled to Japan as Prime Minister, he was promoted to sho-dan (first-degree black belt) by the Kodokan, and then promoted to ni-dan (second-degree black belt) by Takahashi before leaving office.