Born in Osaka, Japan, Noriko went to the United States to do her academic studies. She received a bachelor of science degree in Applied Design and Visual Communications, minor with graphic design and commercial arts from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Then Noriko worked as an associate producer and director on various projects in Japanese Public Broadcasters office in New York City. She studied film production and editing at New York University, where she produced and directed her first 16mm film, THE BRIDGE MAN which is a short, poetic documentary film expressing with minimum method one man's loneliness and isolation after the death of his wife. There is another meaning behind the title of THE BRIDGE MAN. In her first debut film she wanted to create her wish to overlap as a bridging filmmaker between two worlds and their differing cultures.