is a Japanese film director and screenwriter, known for his 2009 film Fish Story, which premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival, and A Boy and His Samurai, which won the Audience Award at the 2011 New York Asian Film Festival.
He was born on 25 August 1970 in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. He went to Seijo University Department of Arts and Literature. While there he joined the Film Research Club and started 8 mm film making, and in 1993 won the PIA Film Festival Grand Prix with "Summer Rain Kitchen". After graduating he worked as assistant director on films with Yoichi Sai, Hideyuki Hirayama and Juzo Itami. In 1999 he made his debut as an independent director with "Local News". That year he worked to direct, organise and produce many films that made into the "It's True! Cursed Films" series. In 2004 together with scriptwriter Ken'ichi Suzuki and editor Tooru Hosokawa he formed the conte unit "Assembly of Little Pigeons". In 2007 he won the Kaneto Shindō Prize given to the most promising new director by the Japan Film Makers' Association. In 2010 he worked as a narrator on the "It's True! Cursed Films" series.