[1] Born in Japan in 1943, Master Tabata started karate at age 13 and received the rank of nidan in Shorinji as a freshman in high school.
He founded the North American Karate-Do Federation (NAKF) and the New England Collegiate Karate Conference (NECKC), and lived in Massachusetts in the United States where he taught regularly until his death in 2020.
In addition, he was the technical director for the US National Olympic Committee.
The North American Karate-do Federation is a collection of Shotokan karate schools, mostly in New England and centered in Greater Boston.
Its sister organisation is the NECKC, and together they host a bi-annual tournament.