Through the 1970-1980s, he established himself as an authoritative scholar in catalytic asymmetric synthesis, editing a book, ""Catalytic Asymmetric Synthesis"" (Wiley-VCH) in 1993, and also published the second (2000) and third (2010) editions. This book collectively became a very popular reference book with >4,100 citations. He was a prolific researcher in the development of new synthetic methods based on transition-metal catalyzed reactions and investigations into their mechanisms, which includes hydrosilylation, silylformylation, silylcarbocyclizations (SiCaCs, SiCaB, SiCaT), higher order (carbonylative) cycloadditions, hydroformylation, hydrocarbonylations, amidocarbonylations, cyclohydrocarbonylations, and enantioselective processes such as hydrosilylation, hydrogenation, hydroformylation, Michael addition, allylic alkylation/amination/etherification, etc. Since the late 1970s, Ojima began his work in organofluorine chemistry by exploring the interface of fluorine chemistry and organometallic chemistry/catalysis. His notable achievements include the development of processes for the highly regioselective hydroformylations of fluoro-olefins, synthesis of "N"-acylfluoroamino acids via hydroformylation-amidocarbonylation of fluoro-olefins, synthesis of a-trifluoromethylacrylic acid via carboxylation, novel ureidocarbonylation, synthesis of optically pure fluoroamino acids via enzymatic kinetic resolution, etc. It is noteworthy that Ojima's synthesis of trifluoromethyluracil from 2-bromotrifluoropropene became an industrial process by Japan Halon (then, Tosoh F-Tech). Furthermore, this process was successfully applied to the commercial synthesis of trifluridine (trifluorothymidine), an antiherpes antiviral drug, primarily used on the eye topically, such as "Viroptic" by Tokyo Yuki Gosei Kogyo in early 1990s. His pioneering work on optically pure fluoroamino acids and their use in medicinally active compounds, such as enkephalin, captopril and taxol (paclitaxel), brought medicinal and biomedical applications to the scope of fluorine chemistry community.