Bjorn Eirik Olsen Shihan represents Norway Aikikai. He is presently holding a 7th Dan and is the Chief instructor of the Norwegian Aikido Federation. He holds seminars regularly in Greece, England, and has a close relationship to Aikido in Vietnam.
Olsen started Aikido back in 1977, and in 1979 he moved to London to study full time under Minoru Kanetsuka for a year. He received his 1st Dan from Masatake Fujita in 1981. In 1982 he lived in Osaka for half a year and trained under Seiseki Abe and Bansen Tanaka.
After Osaka, he moved to Fukuoka, where he trained intensively with Morito Suganuma for a couple of years. From 1991 through 1994 he worked at the Norwegian Embassy in Tokyo. At this time he trained Aikido and Kenjutsu with Minoru Inaba at Meiji Jingu Shiseikan.
During these stays – and more than 50 trips to Japan – he kept close contact with Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo and trained with many of the ‘old’ students of O-Sensei like Kisaburo Osawa, Hiroshi Tada, Seigo Yamaguchi, Sadateru Arikawa and Nobuyuki Watanabe. He also visited Morihiro Saito at Iwama. He has a good relationship with Kishomaru Ueshiba and invited the current Doshu Moriteru Ueshiba and his son Mitsuteru (Waka Sensei) to Norway several times.
Bjorn Eirik Olsen has also invited Minoru Inaba to give seminars, and his main teacher up through the years, Morito Suganuma, has visited Norway 20 times.
In addition to Aikido, Bjorn Eirik Olsen has been practicing Zazen, Chi Kung and Yoga regularly for 40 years. He has been working on how to understand the principles of Aikido and how to apply this knowledge in one’s personal life as well as in society at large.
There’s an App for mobile phones and the tablets named Aikido Guide, which is available at Google Play and iTunes in English. The App is made by Bjorn Eirik Olsen and it looks like he put a lot of himself in it. The Aikido Guide is used by Aikido teachers and students in 70 different countries around the world. It is very comprehensive and pedagogic with more than 400 videos, different modes, in-depth explanations and interviews.