Japanese director, graduated from the University of Waseda, department of theatre and film. He started his career making roman porno for film studio Nikkatsu. His made his directing debut in 1978 with Orion no satsui yori - Joji no houteishiki (From Orion's Testimony: Formula For Murder), which achieved great commercial success that he unfortunately failed to repeat with his second film, Joseito (High School Girl, 1979). Box office sales were high again with Nureta shumatsu (Wet Weekend, 1979). His next films were Boukou gishiki (Rape Ceremony, 1980), Asa wa dameyo (Never in the Morning, 1980) and Onna kyôshi: Yogoreta hôkago (Female Teacher: Dirty Afternoon, 1981), eighth in the series of films produced by studio Nikkatsu, and one of the most successful ones among them. After another successful project, Kurutta kajitsu (Crazed Fruit, 1981), he made his first feature film outside the roman porno genre. It was the drama Enrai (Distant Thunder, 1981), which brought him the award for Best Director at the Yokohama Festival. Then he made his last roman porno film Kyabarê nikki (Cabaret Diary, 1982), and afterwards left studio Nikkatsu. Together with eight directors (Kazuhiko Hasegawa, Toshiharu Ikeda, Sōgo Ishii, Kazuyuki Izutsu, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Kazuki Ōmori, Shinji Sōmai and Banmei Takahashi), he founded the production company Director's Company in 1982. He tried to direct films of various genres - comedy Orecchi no uedingu (My Wedding, 1983), thriller Tantei monogatari (Detective Story, 1983), acclaimed drama Uhohho tankentai (House of Wedlock, 1986) and romance drama Eien no 1/2 (1987). In the 1990’s he directed less; his films during that period include the adaptation of a manga Kachô Shima Kôsaku (1992), short film Chibusa (1993) and the thriller about the Yakuza Kizuna (1998). Six years later he directed the film adaptation of the novel Toukou no ki (Translucent Tree, 2004). His next project was the drama Yuki ni negau koto (What the Snow Brings, 2005), which won several Japanese film awards as Best Director. His last two films are the dramas Saido kâ ni inu (Dog in a Sidecar, 2007) and Viyon no tsuma (Villon's Wife, 2009).