In 2004, the Urawa Reds signed Alessandro Santos and Hirakawa lost his place in the team.

In 2006, he became a regular in the line-up as a right side midfielder and the Urawa Reds won the J1 League for the first time in the club's history.

In 2007, he failed to displace Nobuhisa Yamada, so he became a left side midfielder again, leading to the Urawa Reds winning the 2007 AFC Champions League.

[citation needed] He then lost his place to young player Takahiro Sekine from 2015.

[2] Hirakawa took over manager duties for FC Ryukyu, who play in the J3 Legue competition, from the 2025 season.