He went to the United States and studied composition at the Julliard School of Music where he received his Master's Degree as an honorary scholarship student. He studied with Vincent Persichetti, Hans Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen.
He was awarded the Koussevitzky Music Foundation Fellowship in Tanglewood Music Festival in 1988 and the BMW Theater Prize in the Third Munich Biennale (International Festival for New Music Theater) in 1992.
He was unknown in Japan until his work for string orchestra, "Fiber of the Breath", was given its world premiere by Oliver Knussen and the NHK Symphony Orchestra at Suntory Hall in 1992. "Fiber of the Breath" brought him the Idemitsu Music Award and the Akutagawa Award for Music Composition in 1993. In 1995, he received the Otaka Prize for his "Fractal Vision", an orchestral work commissioned by Kyoto City for the Kyoto City Symphony Orchesta.
He received commissions from Hiroyuki Iwaki (conductor), the Suntory Music Foundation, National Theater, the Tokyo International Music Ensemble, the Tokyo Philharmonic Chorus, the Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto, London Sinfonietta, the Kamakura Performing Arts Center, Century Orchestra Osaka and the others.
In 1997 he devoted to the Yatsugatake Kogen Music Festival as the music director, of which the Toru Takemitsu had been the director and organizer for many years.