• 1974 born in Ueda, Nagano prefecture, Japan
    1980-1982 De Goede Herderschool, Ermelo, The Netherlands
    1982-1986 Ueda Kita Elementary School, Ueda, Japan
    1986-1989 Ueda Daisan Junior High School, Ueda, Japan
    1989-1992 Ueda High School, Ueda, Japan
    1992-1996 International Christian University, Mitaka, Japan (B.A. in Liberal Arts. B.A.
    thesis "Accent and Intonation of The Saru Dialect of Ainu")
    1996-1998 Graduate School of Human Sciences, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
    (M.A.). M.A. thesis
    "The Consonantal Sandhi of Ainu" (in Japanese, abridged
    version appeared in 2002
    )
    1998-1999 Research fellow University of Groningen (financed by NUFFIC)
    2000-2001 Research fellow Sakhalin Museum of Regional Studies, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russian Federation
    2002-2006 Ph.D. student University of Groningen, Dep. of Linguistics, Faculty of Arts
    2005- Lecturer in linguistics, Sapporo Gakuin University, Faculty of Economics
    2006 Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of Groningen