While researching Asian ethnic music, soundscapes, and arts management, he served as Artistic Director of "Gendai Art no Mori" (Forest of Contemporary Art) (2000-2008), Artistic Director of the Dance-Drama Momotaro (2001-08), and Director of Senba Art Cafe (2004-2013). His book Heian-kyo: The Universe of Sound (Heibonsha) received the Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities, the Kyoto Music Award, and the Koizumi Fumio Prize for Ethnomusicology. He also received the Kyoto Prefecture Culture Award for his contemporary music activities, and the Special Award from the Japan Association of City Planners and the Yumezukuri Machizukuri Award (jointly) for his achievements in arts management. Other works include Topos of Sound Art (Showa-do), The Power of Art (Izumi Shoin), Future Arts Management (Film Art Inc., co-edited), and the novel Sawasawa (Kyuryudo). As a gamelan performer, he has been active both domestically and internationally, receiving the Cultural Exchange Award from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia (2007) and the Consul General's Award (2017). He also received the Osaka Prefectural Judicial Award for his efforts concerning environmental noise (2019). In recent years, he has focused on the practice of socially inclusive art. He is a Specially Appointed Professor at the Urban Research Plaza, Osaka City University, and a Visiting Professor at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts and Chulalongkorn University (Thailand). Born in Nara Prefecture in 1951.