Dale Furutani (born December 1, 1946, in Hilo, Hawaii) is the first Asian American to win major mystery writing awards.
[citation needed] Furutani's family came from Yamaguchi Prefecture in Japan to Hawaii in 1896.
He has a degree in Creative Writing from California State University, Long Beach, and an MBA in Marketing from UCLA.
In addition to his writing career, he has held positions as Parts Marketing Manager for Yamaha Motorcycles, Director of Information Systems for Nissan USA, and CIO of Edmunds.com.
[citation needed] Furutani lives near Seattle, Washington, but spends considerable time in Japan.