His areas of specialty are biostatistics, clinical trial methodologies, and bioinformatics. Prior to joining the University of Tokyo, he served as the Lecturer of Biostatistics at the Center Advanced Medicine and Clinical Research, Nagoya University Hospital, where he leaded the Statistical Analysis Section. He also served as a reviewer in the Office of New Drug V (clinical oncology) at the Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA). Dr. Hirakawa received his PhD from the Graduate School of Engineering at Tokyo University of Science.