Yuji Hiratsuka was born in Osaka  in 1954. He graduated from Tokyo Art Teacher's University in 1978 and received a M.A. and MFA in the United States at the New Mexico State University and the University of Indiana. For for more than 40 years Hiratsuka has lived and worked in the United States. Today he resides in Oregon. His work is in the permanent collections of prestigious institutions worldwide such as the Tokyo Central Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the British Museum, to name only a few.