Her research centers on (1) understanding and developing solutions to socioeconomic issues relating to urban spatial structure and (2) GIS applications and education. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Keio University, and Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Planning from MIT. When she was a doctoral student, she was a visiting researcher at UCLA. She was previously an Associate Professor in the Center for Spatial Inforrmation Science at the University of Tokyo.