Presently a professor of Center for the Study of Co*Design Osaka University and former an executive vice president of Osaka University. He is also a Director of Program for Education and Research on Science and Technology in Public Sphere (STiPS), and was a Professor and Vice Director of Center for the Study of Communication-Design, Osaka University. He is also a member of Science Council Japan, and Principal Fellow of Research Institute of Science and Technology for Society(RISTEX), JST.

His research interests include philosophy of science, science, technology and society (STS) studies. His publications include University as a Research Site: What Knowledge is for? (editor, Iwanami Shoten, 2013), The Age of Trans-Science (NTT Publications, 2007), Lessons from Fukushima (ed. by Y. Fujigaki, Springer, 2015) .

He also served as a member of organizers and a facilitator of the first Nation-wide Consensus Conference on GMOs (2000), the first President of Japanese Society for Science and Technology Studies (2001- 2003), a Director of “World Wide Views on Global Warming Project” in Japan (2009).