Currently he is a member of Studio Ponoc, having formerly been a part of Studio Ghibli for over 18 years from 1996 to 2015. While he was still at Ghibli, he made his directorial debut as a 37-year-old with The Secret World of Arrietty, and became the youngest director of a theatrical feature produced by the studio. Tomomi Mochizuki, a director of a 1993 TV special, Ocean Waves, is the youngest director of a Ghibli film at 34.
