Bachelor of engineering and master of science in aeronautics from University of Tokyo, 1978 and 1980, respectively; Ph.D. in aerospace engineering from University of Tokyo, 1983; Ph.D. in astronomy from Rice University, 2004; hobbies: Tennis, flying, soaring, jogging, soccer and observing stars as an amateur astronomer; was selected as one of two Japanese backup PSP for STS-47 (Chiaki Mukai was the other one); retired from NASA on June 30, 2009 and from JAXA on September 18, 2009 to become a U.N. section chief.