Over the past 33 years, I have worked as a research geophysicist focusing on providing better tools and algorithms for near-surface geophysical methods. I earned a B.S. degree in Earth Sciences from Chiba University in Japan and joined OYO Corporation in 1990. While working at OYO Corporation, I earned a M.S. degree in Earth Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1999, and a Ph.D. in Earth Resources Engineering from Kyoto University in Japan in 2008. In 2010 I moved to U.S. and worked for Geometrics that is a subsidiary of OYO. In 2024, I left OYO group and joined Kyoto University. My main research areas are seismic refraction, active and passive surface waves, finite-difference seismic modeling, distributed acoustic sensing, and machine learning. I am the author of the SeisImager data analysis suite of programs and has incorporated many of my theoretical developments into the software, making SeisImager one of the premier active and passive surface waves, refraction, and downhole data processing packages available today. I regularly present papers at the major meetings, publishes in journals of SEG, SEGJ, EEGS, EAGE and SSA, and serves on scientific commissions. In 2014, I was selected as the SEG Near-Surface Honorary Lecturer, with my talk entitled “Integrated Geophysical Methods Applied to Geotechnical and Geohazard Engineering: From Qualitative to Quantitative Analysis and Interpretation”. Most recently, I was a contributing author to the textbook entitled “Seismic Ambient Noise”. I am currently in charge of a lecturer for a SEG training course “Passive Surface Wave Methods Using Ambient Noise: from Basic 1D Soundings to High-resolution 3D Imaging”.

My main research topics are

1) Mechanism of landslide disaster

2) Landslide risk assessment map

3) Landslide hazard map with the participation of local residents

4) Disaster prevention education for local residents

Through field investigations, monitoring, indoor and outdoor geophysical and geotechnical experiments, and theoretical analyses, he has been conducting fundamental research on the initiation and movement mechanisms of landslides, advancing studies in landslide prediction. His research primarily focuses on “the initiation and movement mechanisms of rapid long-traveling landsliding phenomena during earthquakes and/or heavy rainfall,” “prediction of displaced landslide materials”, “shear behavior of granular materials”, “risk assessment and mitigation measures for large-scale reactivated landslides”, “Formation and collapse risk of landslide dam, and disaster mitigation”, and “Landsliding behavior and prediction under abnormal weather conditions”, etc.

How coseismic landslides are generated is investigated by means of field observation and data analysis. Our monitoring fields range from Hokkaido to Kyushu in Japan. By applying seismological knowledge and methods to landslides, researches on monitoring rain-induced landslides and understanding landslide generation fields are conducted. I am trying to establish a new study field “Slope Seismology” where landslide phenomena and seismology are integrated.

In our laboratory, based on geological principles, we study landslides, complex and diverse phenomena, using various methods, including research at the electron microscope level, various physical explorations, field observation, UAV, laser mapping, and observations using satellite positioning systems.Furthermore, for engineers and students involved in slope disasters, we conduct educational and support activities in engineering geology. I am based at the Tokushima Landslide Observation Station, situated at the entrance of the Shikoku Mountains, one of the most prominent landslide areas in Japan.
However, our research extends to the seabed and the far north of Greenland. For more information about my past research, please refer to Researchmap.

My main target is deep-seated catastrophic landslides (DCLs) induced by heavy rainfall and earthquakes in mountains underlain by accretional complexes. Instances are DCLs that occurred in the Kii Mountains in 1889 and 2011 by heavy rain, Toujiyama DCLs that occurred in the Shikoku Mountains in 1857 by the Ansei-Aki-Iyo earthquake, and DCLs that occurred in Kyushu Mountains in 2005 by heavy rain. The most important issues are predicting the potential slopes for DCLs and evacuation. To clarify the geological and geomorphological causes and initiation mechanisms of DCLs, geological surveys, seismic observations of slopes and GIS analysis are performed using applied geology, geomorphology, seismology and geotechnical engineering. The main fields are mountains in the outer zone of Southwest Japan.