首都大学東京
Inoué was born in London, England, the son of a diplomat. He built his first polarized light microscope from a discarded machine gun base and a tin tea can. He attended Tokyo Metropolitan University, and went to Princeton University for his graduate studies. He was a member of the faculty at Dartmouth College (1959–1966) and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania (1966-1982), before joining the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1982.