Emeritus Professor of Japanese and Linguistics since 1991. Currently researches Linguistic inquiry into human brain through analysis of non-creative metaphors and other cognitive linguistic analyses. He received his B.A. and M.A. in English Literature from Waseda University, B.A. and M.A. in Linguistics from University of Tokyo, and Ph.D. in Linguistics from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

His published works include Uchi to Soto no Gengo-Bunka-Gaku----Bunpoo o Bunka de Kiru, Tokyo: ALC (1996); Kodansha's Basic English-Japanese Dictionary (Nichijoo Nihongo Bilingual Jiten) (with S. Nakada & M. Ohso), Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1999; NAKAMA: Japanese Communication, Culture, Context (with Y.Hatasa & K. Hatasa), Vol. 1 & 2, Boston/NY, Houghton Mifflin, 1999/2000; (With S. Kuno & S. Strauss) Aspects of Linguistics, Tokyo: Kurosio Shuppan (2007); (With M.Tsutsui) A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar, Tokyo: Japan Times, 2008.

Professor Makino was the President of Association of Teachers of Japanese, 2003-2005. He has been the Academic Director of a three-summer M.A. Program in Japanese Pedagogy at Columbia University since 1996. Awarded the ADFL Award for Distinguished Service in the Profession in 2001, and Award of the Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language, 2007.

Award of the Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language, Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language, 2007.