He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics at featherweight (– 57 kg) but lost his first bout 9–12 to Yakup Kılıç. He was not happy about the judgement, and turned down the offers to sign professional contracts in order to win a medal at the Olympics. He secured the bronze medal in the featherweight division in the 2009 Asian Amateur Boxing Championships in Zhuhai, China, and won the National Sports Festival of Japan in the lightweight division to become a three-division champion of that title in the same year.