About Us

Our Story

Rock Bottom Publishing was founded in 2020 as a family company with the goal of helping new projects to get off the ground. It works in partnership with other publishers, including Wakefield Press in Adelaide Australia, and SayZanSha Publications in Tokyo Japan.

As the name indicates, the company aims to build from the bottom up. It takes inspiration from a speech by Harry Potter author JK Rowling to Harvard University students in 2008, when she said:

“.. rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”[1]

This statement meant a lot to Yuko Matsuoka, who back in 1998, widowed and new to publishing, obtained the right to publish the first Harry Potter book in Japan, worked day and night for a year to translate it into Japanese, and spent her life savings on the first print run. The rest, as they say, was history.

This statement also spoke to Bob Harris, who Yuko married in 2007. A former teacher from South Australia, Bob had gone overseas to study in 1978, later becoming Secretary General of the main international teachers’ organisation. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the end of the cold war, he was an architect of the creation of Education International, with the fundamental goal of promoting opportunity for all, regardless of origin or status in life, through quality education.  

Our Team

Yuko Matsuoka Harris

Yuko is President of SayZanSha Holdings, Japan; she introduced the Harry Potter series of JK Rowling to Japan 22 years ago, and was named Japanese businesswoman of the year by Nikkei in 2000. With her husband, she has founded the Swiss Magic Libraries Foundation to promote reading for disadvantaged children in Asia and Australasia, and the Matsuoka Book Heritage Foundation in Japan.

Ronald J Harris (Resident Director)

After a background in public sector employment leading to Airport Administration at Adelaide International Airport, Ron had responsibilities in the South Australian private health sector for medical supplies. A Past President of his Rotary Club he continues to work actively with his wife Jenny for causes supported by Rotary locally and internationally.

Robert T Harris

Bob is co-Founder of Education International, with 32 million members in more than 160 countries. As a widely recognized leader of civil society, he chaired NGO conferences at the United Nations in New York and Geneva, at UNESCO and at the OECD in Paris, and participated in the work of the World Economic Forum in Davos and Dubai.

[1] J.K. Rowling:  ‘The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination’; The Harvard Gazette, Boston, June 5, 2008