1984-91
Undergraduate and graduate studies of Anthropology, Japanese Studies, and Chinese Studies at the University of Cologne and Sophia University, Tokyo (1987-88)
1991
M.A. degree in Anthropology (Thesis: "Communitarian Groups in Japan: Ethnography – National Context – Comparative Features"), University of Cologne
1992-98
Instructor at the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Cologne
1997
Doctorate in Anthropology (Thesis: "The Survival Conditions of Communitarian Groups: A Comparative Study"), University of Cologne
1998-99
Foreign Research Fellow of the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), Osaka
1999-2007
Lecturer at the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Cologne
2001-03
Habilitation Scholarship of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
2004-05
Visiting Full Professor of Modern Japan, University of Düsseldorf
2005
Habilitation degree in Anthropology (Thesis: "A Right to the Past: Tradition, Democracy, and the Townscape in Contemporary Kyoto"), University of Cologne
2007/08
Visiting Full Professor of Anthropology, University of Tübingen
2008
Visiting Full Professor of Anthropology, University of Cologne
2008-10
Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation (DFG)
since 2009  President of the German Association for Social Science Research on Japan (VSJF)
since 2010  Head of Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle