Born in Hiroshima, Japan,[2] he first emerged as a javelin thrower at the 1927 Far Eastern Championship Games held in Shanghai.

His winning mark of 56.90 m (186 ft 8 in) was an improvement of over five metres on the previous games record set two years earlier.

[4] He stayed in Europe for a few weeks that August to compete at the 1928 Summer Student World Championships in Paris and there he defeated all comers with a throw of 62.81 m (206 ft 3⁄4 in) to win the gold medal in a games record.

He also won a second gold for the host nation, scoring 2838 in the athletics pentathlon to top rankings as part of a Japanese medal sweep of the event.

[6] He was selected for the 1932 Olympic javelin alongside teammate Saburo Nagao and managed to finish in eighth place with 61.14 m (200 ft 7 in).