My previous research consists of three strands. First, I reexamined the path of Japanese economic development since the prewar period from the perspective of development microeconomics. This is a cross-over of economic history and development microeconomics, which I call "development microeconomic history". Topics that I studied include farmland tenancy contract choice, the role of community in economic development, and cause and consequences of tenancy dispute. My fundamental motivation behind this strand is to understand why Japan was able to develop so rapidly (and why Japan has started to fall behind today), as well as to obtain some applicable lessons for the current developing countries. My second strand of research focused on current developing countries. I conducted some theoretical investigations on the implication of foreign aid. The third strand is on farmland liquidization and consolidation in current Japanese rural areas.

As for my "development microeconomic history" study, I am working on the impact of factory agglomeration on productivity improvement in the silk-reeling industry in prewar period, impact evaluation of Rural Economic Rehabilitation Movement (one of the world's earliest community-driven development project) implemented in the 1930s, and comparative case study of governance of trade and market. I am also involved in a project to support CSR activities of firms operating in Africa with a team of Institute of Developing Economies of JETRO. An epidemiological study to raise HIV-VCT up take and field survey on unemployment and job search methods is ongoing in South Africa. Finally, I am working on mechanism design and simulation on the reallocation of farmland after farmland consolidation projects.