Born in Tokyo in Feb. 1935. Graduated the Department of Chemistry, University of Tokyo, 1958. Obtained Ph.D. from the Department of Biophysics and Biochemistry, University of Tokyo in 1965. Since 1963, served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo , an Assistant Professor of University of Tokyo, a Research Associate in NASA Ames Research Center in California, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, and a Laboratory Chief and Division Director of Mitsubishi-Kasei Institute of Life Sciences in Tokyo. In 1983 moved to Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITech) and became a Professor of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Bioscience and Biotechnology. In April, 1995, retired from TITech due to the compulsory age retirement regulation, and moved to the Faculty of Life Science, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science. From 1991 served as the Faculty Dean in Tokyo Institute of Technology, and also elected as the Dean of the Faculty of Life Science, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science in 1996. In April, 2005, again retired from Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science due to the compulsory age retirement regulation of the university and moved to the present institution as the Director of the Institute of Environmental Microbiology, Kyowa-kako Co. Professor Emeritus of Tokyo Institute of Technology and also Professor Emeritus of Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science. Former Head of Japanese Biochemical Society and at present, the President of Japanese Society for Protein Science. Main research subjects are biochemistry and molecular biology of thermophiles including thermophilic archaea, polyamine biochemistry, directed evolution of enzyme proteins, and molecular mechanisms of evolution.