Born in July 1957. Joined Honda's Asaka laboratory in 1982 and has been involved in off-road and motocross bike development ever since. In the 1980s, led the development of the RC250MA, the automatic motorcycle used by Takayuki Miyauchi to win his All Japan Motocross Championship title in 91. Led development of the motorcycles entered in the Paris-Dakar Rally in '94 and '95 and the EXP2, an experimental environmentally-friendly model entered in '95 . Developed the mass-production CRF450R/X 4-stroke motocross bike and worked as head of development for off-road racing until 2008. Left the front lines in 2009 to "make room for the next generation," but joined TEAM HRC as the leader for the upcoming Dakar Rally at the request of the President of HRC.