Born in Chichibu City in Saitama Prefecture. Graduated from Chiba University in 1987 and worked for the Ornamental Hort. Lab. for two years as a computer programmer after graduation. In 1989, went to the United States and trained as an intern at two botanical gardens in Pennsylvania, Longwood Gardens and Morris Arboretum, and worked at Morris Arboretum and Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Arizona, USA as curatorial assistant/ horticulturist. Started working at Chiba University in March 1996. From June 1999 to May 2000, I was in Argentina as an expert of JICA for a joint project between Japanese and Argentine government to explore Argentine native plants with ornamental potential. My main research areas are analyses of floral pigments of Phlox cultivars and phylogenetic study of wild plants that have ornamental potential.