Japanese screenwriter. In 1971 , he was arrested for student protests and dropped out of Kyushu University . After 12 years of legal battles and 2.5 years of imprisonment, he decided to become a screenwriter at the age of 36 and studied under Haruhiko Arai . In 1999, he won the Kikushima Ryūzō Award for "One Step on a Mine, It's All Over". He is currently a lecturer at the Japan Institute of the Moving Image.