Date of Birth: October 28, 1957
Education: 1980 B. Sc., The University of Tokyo
1986 Ph.D., The University of Tokyo
Degree: Doctor of Agriculture (The University of Tokyo)
Faculty positions:
1987 Postdoctoral Fellow, National Institute of Environmental Health Science (NIEHS/NIH), USA
1989 Assistant Professor, University Farm, The University of Tokyo
1995 Associate Professor, Asian Natural Environmental Center, The University of Tokyo
My major interest is in the tolerance mechanism of plants against environmental stresses such as salinity, flooding, shade (low light) and oxidation. I am also interested in the molecular breeding of crop plants introducing foreign genes related to tolerant mechanism against environmental stresses. So far, I have studied on the screening of the genes, which related to the stress-tolerance of plants, and I have analyzed the function of the genes with various methods including the transformation of the plants. The researches in this field have been done vigorously in all over the world, and a lot of reports have been published. It is hereafter very important that the scientific knowledge on the tolerance mechanism of plants against stresses would be applied to the improvement of crop plants to confer improved tolerance ability against stresses, under which plants suffer retardation of growth or lethal effects practically. I have some research fields in Asia to extract the practical problem related to environmental stresses on plants. For example, a research program is now carried out collaborated with Professor Shenkui Liu of Northeast Forest University, Harbin, China and myself. The alkaline soil, on which alkaline salts such as carbonate are accumulated, is extended in North-east China. The area of the alkaline soil is estimated to be more than one huntred million ha, and is a very serious problem for the preservation of environment and for agriculture in China. The Anda-city, which located 120km north-west of Harbin city, offered a 200ha of field in the area of alkaline soil for 50 years!! Northeast Forest University established the Alkali Soil Natural Environmental Science Center, surrounded the field to prevent the nomads and animals from coming in, and constructed a building for experiment and greenhouses. Prof. Liu and I have started to study on the recovery of vegetation in alkaline soil area, on the tolerance mechanism of plants and on the generation of tolerant plants to alkaline soil. We dream that we will return the field to Anda-city with a lot of vegetation on it after 50 years research.