Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo Department of
Integrated Biosciences

I had always wanted to do “scientific” research on humans, but when I was a high school student I had never heard of natural anthropology. Thinking that primatology would be close to this, I entered the Department of Biology at the Faculty of Science, where there was an anthropology course, but just after the departure of a prominent chimpanzee researcher, I was at a loss. It just so happened that I heard about a project to excavate Neanderthal site and fossils in the Syrian Arab Republic, and I joined the team in my third grade. I was fascinated by the multi-disciplinary discussions and the fieldwork in a foreign country, where experts from various fields and countries were gathered. I wanted to be a member of the team as an expert, so I decided to study anthropology using isotope analysis as my postgraduate subject. However, the laboratory in which I was staying decided to install a new AMS machine and I became a founding member of the radiocarbon dating laboratory at NIES. I really enjoyed working with physicists and chemists there. I enjoyed the opportunity to improve the equipment as an excuse to study at Oxford, which led me to the field of archaeological science. I found it interesting to discuss my analytical data from an archaeological point of view and pursued archaeological research. When I returned to Japan, I had the opportunity to run a laboratory and decided to start researching archaeology and ecology, with a focus on humans. Eventually, I came back to my first interest. Wherever and whatever the theme of my research was, I found it interesting. For the future, I want to research only those topics that I find truly interesting. At the same time, I want to encourage the next generation by providing them with a research environment and opportunities.