Japanese anime director and artist. He studied painting at Kanazawa College of Art. He worked for the animation studio Toei Animation, and in 2005 he joined Madhouse where he worked until 2011. Afterwards he founded his Studio Chizu. Starting in 1999, he directed some episodes of Digimon: Digital Monsters, and then made two films, feature-length Digimon: The Movie (2000) and short Dejimon adobenchâ - Bokura no wô gêmu! (2000). After Digimon, he directed television anime series Samurai chanpurû (Samurai Champloo, 2004–2005). His following feature-length was one film of the One piece series, One piece: Omatsuri danshaku to himitsu no shima (One Piece: Baron Omatsuri and the Secret Island, 2005). His fil Toki o kakeru shôjo (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, 2006), based on a novel, was well received and was awarded best animated film by the Japanese Academy in 2007. He received the same award for his even more successful films Samâ uôzu (Summer Wars, 2009) and The Wolf Children Ame and Yuki (Okami kodomo no ame to yuki, 2012).