Sachiko is a Japanese-American with an insatiable appetite for good story. She understands character motivation on a deep level and can help you dig deeper into your character than you thought possible. Best of all, she’ll do it with her trademark enthusiasm and deep-heart kindness. Plus, if you need someone to spread punfetti through your manuscript, Sachiko has a party cannon for that.
Sachiko grew up in the Japanese-American community, both in Japan and stateside, and is the daughter of a Japanese-born, fully fluent father. She’s worked as a sensitivity reader with multiple authors, illustrators, and game designers, including Penguin, Asmodee, Abrams Books, Choice of Games, and Harper Collins.
Sachiko loves sensitivity reading, but she’s also a fan of developmental edits. Whether your story has character problems or plot holes, Sachiko always finds the right questions to ask to guide you to a better story. She particularly loves world building and character motivations.
Sachiko has yet to meet a genre she didn’t like, but she will absolutely make you katsu if your story has megafauna.
If she’s not reading or writing, Sachiko is probably fostering kittens and forgetting to give them away, working magic over the grill, or practicing yoga to connect to the divine feminine.
A masterful punster, don’t be shocked if your line edits contain some funny treats.
Her favorite books are DUNE by Frank Herbert and TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG by Connie Willis.
Learn from Sachiko!
Sachiko’s sensitivity reader work currently only includes editorial sensitivity reads.
Sensitivity / Expert
- Japanese-American characters, history, and issues, including hafu/quafu life
- White-presenting mixed-race; minority culture
- Large family life, homeschooling
- Traumatic childbirth, child loss, and grief
- Christianity, Puritanism, and religious sensitivity; post-Mormon concerns
- Trauma, sexual abuse/assault, PTSD, self-harm and suicidal ideation
- Recovery life and therapy
- Military life (specifically USAF)
- Body positivity, fatphobia, and fat activism
- Eating disorders
- Special needs children, specifically: failure-to-thrive, genetic issues, and early intervention
- Abusive relationships
- Mental inpatient care
Preferred Genres
Fantasy Sci-Fi Romcom
Avoided Genres
None!
What Clients Say
I’m an editor at Choice of Games, and I requested a sensitivity reader on behalf of one of my authors.
The experience was wonderful! We needed a rush turnaround, and the report came in right on schedule. Sachiko’s feedback was insightful, specific, and constructive. When she found something that did need to be fixed, she gave thorough explanations about why it needed to be changed, and offered clear steps that we could take to fix it. She also noted aspects of the text that she especially liked, which was really encouraging to read.
All of the communication from Salt & Sage was clear and helpful, too; we knew exactly what to expect at every step of the process, and got useful advice about how to approach the feedback when we received it.
I never had a cultural consultation done before, and I was pretty scared about it because I know the little things can slip by or problematic tropes can sneak their way in. But Sachiko, my editor, was an absolute ray of sunshine. She worked beautifully with me, understood my vision for the character and helped me flesh him out, and I legitimately cried when I got the last round of edits because my character finally CLICKED as himself after he just floated about for a decade. I can’t say how much this meant to me. Thank you all, you’re a great team and I’m excited to come back to you for future cultural consultations and other edits!