[3] During his first year at Fukui University of Technology & High School, his team represented the prefecture to the Summer Koshien tournament, although he did not appear in any games.

[4] He entered Hosei University in Tokyo and continued pitching for its baseball team where he played with soon-to-be Hanshin teammate Kazuhito Futagami.

[4] He was able to immediately join the main roster's spring training camp in February, which was considered quite an achievement for a rookie who was a 5th round pick or lower.

On March 11, he suffered his first loss when he surrendered a home run to Giants rookie Seiji Kobayashi, and eventually lost his chance to make it to the opening day roster when he finished the preseason games with a 13.5 ERA.

[7] He played in western league (farm) games for most of the season, but he finally made it to the main roster on July 14, replacing Kosuke Katoh.