Q. What was your favorite subject as a child?
A. I liked everything in general, except for PE in the summer.　
Whereas most of the other subjects required students to take tests based on reading and memorizing textbooks, I felt that I could do arts and crafts in a completely free environment.

Q. What books or textbooks would you recommend for students?
A. Kenji Miyazawa's children’s stories　
I feel that they represent what it means to understand nature.

Q. What were you interested in when you were in middle and high school?
A. Voyager 2 Planetary Exploration
Voyager 2 flew past Uranus when I was in middle school and reached Neptune when I was in high school. I was looking forward to seeing what Uranus and Neptune looked like. This is what my scientist-like reply would be, but what I usually cared about were the next volume of Shonen Jump and the results of professional baseball games.

Q. What are your hobbies?
A. Reading
I feel like my research is almost like my hobby. Other than that, I enjoy reading. For the past few years, I have been reading novels from the Open Air Library (Aozora Bunko).

Q. Do you consider yourself lucky?
A. Absolutely.
I have made it this far thanks to all the people who surround me and the opportunities that I have been blessed with.

Q. Do you think aliens exist?
A. Yes.
I don't know how "aliens" are defined, but I do believe that extraterrestrial life forms exist.

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