Kikuchi's research was recorded in the official Nobel Prize selection meeting minutes of the 1930s.
In 1928, Kikuchi and Shoji Nishikawa observed and gave a theoretical explanation of the electron backscatter diffraction pattern from a calcite cleavage face.
In 1934, he was appointed as professor at Osaka Imperial University and directed the construction of Japan's first DC high voltage Cockcroft-Walton accelerator.
In 1955, he was appointed as the first director of the Institute of Nuclear Research at the University of Tokyo, and successfully presided over the completion of the variable energy cyclotron.
Between 1959 and 1964, he was chairman of the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute.