His main interests were in statistical mechanics and condensed matter physics.
He was a professor emeritus of the Tokyo University of Education.
In 1947 he received the Mainichi Shuppan-Bunka prize for his contributions to the theory of liquids and in 1981 the Fujihara Award for the discovery of the Toda lattice.
He was a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters.
He died of multiple organ failure on 6 October 2010.