Born 1958 in Tottori, Japan. Doctorate, Kyoto University (1986), Assistant Professor, Tokyo Institute of Technology (1987-1989), Associate Professor, Tokyo University (1989-2002), Visiting Researcher, University of Utah, USA (1992-1998), Director of the Akeno Observatory, ICRR of the University of Tokyo (1998-2002), Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute of Physics (since 2003).