He graduated from Kyoto University's Department of Engineering (nuclear engineering) in 1981, Kyoto University's Graduate School (nuclear engineering) in 1983, and completed a doctorate program at the University of Tokyo in 1983. He has worked in the nuclear energy division of Kobe Steel, the head researcher of the Japan General Research Institute, and a guest researcher at Lund University in Sweden, and is the director of the Institute for Environmental Energy Policy (ISEP) and the Natural Energy Foundation. Books include "De-nuclear Society," "Natural Energy Market," "Energy Democracy in Northern Europe," and "The Future Without Nuclear Power: The Exit is Natural Energy."