Prior to his retirement from the judiciary in 2014, he was the Chief Judge of the Intellectual Property High Court in Japan and between 2006-2012 had been the Presiding Judge of that court. He has had a distinguished Judicial career from 1994-1996 in the Tokyo High Court, from 1996-1998 as Presiding Judge in the Tokyo District Court, from 1998-2004 as Presiding Judge of the Intellectual Property Division at the Tokyo District Court, and from 2004-2006 as Chief Judge of the Kofu District Court. Prior to that he worked within the Ministry of Justice and as a Judge at various courts including Sapporo District Court and Tokyo District Court. He has also worked in the Administrative Affairs Bureau of the Supreme Court of Japan. He graduated from the Law Faculty at Tokyo University, and completed the 2-year judicial training at the Judicial Research and Training Institute before commencing his career in 1974.