He received his Ph.D. from Lancaster University in the UK. He has also been involved in a number of research projects, including the investigation of curricular innovations commissioned by the MEXT Ministry, a comparative study of English abilities of Japanese, Korean and Chinese high school students, and so forth. In 2004 he coedited Washback in Language Testing with Liying Cheng and Andrew Curtis. This interview was conducted electronically in May 2005.