In 2011, he received the Quaternary Research Award of the Japan Association for Quaternary Research. He specializes in the lithic technologies and geoarchaeology of the Upper Paleolithic in Northeast Asia. He has worked in Russia, Mongolia, and Japan and is currently conducting archaeological and geoarchaeological investigations at the Shimaki site in Hokkaido, which is yielding chipped stone technology dating to the Last Glacial Maximum. Masami has also worked on the problem of Quaternary megafaunal extinction in Japan, attempting to understanding human-environment interaction in insular northeast Asia.