Received his DPhil from the University of Sussex in 1988. Served as a visiting scholar at the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong (1989‐1991), the Japanese Embassy in Beijing (1996‐1998), Fairbank Center for East Asian Research of Harvard University (2005‐06), Peking University (2014-15), and the Mercator Institute for China Studies (2016). Holds the current position since 2005. Concurrently serves as an adjunct fellow of the Japan Institute of International Affairs and as senior fellow of the Tokyo Foundation.

His publications include The Politics of Wage Policy in Post-Revolutionary China, (Macmillan, 1992) , New Developments in East Asian Security (Akashi Sh ote n, 2005, co-editor, in Japanese) , Beyond the Borders: Contemporary Asian Studies Volume One (Keio University Press, 2008, co-editor, in Japanese) , The History of Japan-China Relations 1972~2012 Volume One Politics (University of Tokyo Press, 2012 , co-editor, in Japanese ), Modern History of Japan-China Relations (Yuhikaku Publishing Co., 2013, co-author, in Japanese), and To the Era of Developmentalism, 1972-2014, Series on China’s Modern History, Volume 5 (Iwanami Shoten, 2014, co-author, in Japanese).