He is a professor in the Department of Applied Chemistry at the University of Tokyo. He has published extensively on the multicomponent assembly of large coordination cages.  Compounds designed and prepared in his research group are variously described as three-dimensional synthetic receptors, coordination assemblies, molecular paneling, molecular flasks, crystalline sponges, and coordination capsules.
He shared the 2018 Wolf Prize in Chemistry with Omar Yaghi "for conceiving metal-directed assembly principles leading to large highly porous complexes".