He received a Ph.D. degree in medicine and his Medical degree from Kanazawa University, Japan, in 1996 and 1992, respectively. In 1996, he was a Research Fellow at the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Kanazawa University Hospital. From 2006 to 2009, he was a Visiting Scientist at Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA. His research interests include diabetic vascular complications (retinopathy, nephropathy, and atherosclerosis), glycation reaction on proteins, RAGE (receptor for advanced glycation end products) as one of pattern-recognition receptors (PRRs), inflammations, innate immunity, monocyte-macrophage biology, and stem cell biology.