He received a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and an MA in Social Anthropology of Japan from Oxford Brookes University as well as a Post-Graduate Diploma in Social Anthropology from University of Manchester. Ota worked as a part-time lecturer at the University of Delhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. His research areas include: popular culture, consumption and consumerism, youth culture, identity construction, globalization, nationalism, Japan, Taiwan, and Northeast India.