[1] While studying at Nihon University College of Art's Department of Cinema, he participated in the writing team of Sherlock Hound directed by Hayao Miyazaki.

[4] He traveled to the U.S. several times to work on Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, a Japan-U.S. co-production of an animated film produced by Telecom, but decided to leave the company after becoming fed up with the project going astray as it was being pushed around by the American side.

He was seconded to Studio Ghibli from Mushi Productions to work as an assistant director for Hayao Miyazaki on Kiki's Delivery Service in 1989.

Around this time, he was asked to train new directors and animators for Studio Ghibli, which had changed from a system of recruiting freelance staff for each production to a proper company structure and began hiring new employees.

[10] He made his directorial debut with the Nippon Animation TV series Famous Dog Lassie in 1996.