Arakawa graduated from the Faculty of Letters at Kyoto University in 1995. He stayed on for graduate studies at Kyoto University, from where he received his doctorate in 2002. Since 2003 he has been teaching at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, with the position of associate professor since 2007.
Arakawa specialises in the study of the Tangut language, in particular Tangut phonology and the reconstruction of the pronunciation of Tangut characters. In 2006 he co-edited a Tangut-Russian-English-Chinese dictionary with Evgenij Ivanovich Kychanov, for which he provided the reconstructed Tangut readings. He has also published a number of studies of bilingual Tangut-Tibetan texts.
In 2016 Arakawa received the prestigious 金田一京助博士記念賞 award for his study of the Tangut version of the Diamond Sutra.
1999. "Kazō taion shiryō kara mita Seikago no seichō" 夏藏対音資料からみた西夏語の声調 [A Study on Tangut Tones from Tibetan Transcriptions]; in Gengogaku Kenkyū 言語学研究 [Linguistic Research] 17–18: 27-44.
2001. "Seikago no kyakuin ni mirareru inbo ni tsuite 'San shi shu ming yan ji wen' shoshū seikagoshi" 西夏語の脚韻に見られる韻母について―『三世属明言集文』所収西夏語詩 [About the rhymes in Tangut verses: Reanalysis of Tangut rhyming poetry in San shi shu ming yan ji wen]; in Kyōto daigaku gengogaku kenkyū 京都大学言語学研究 [Linguistic Research of the Kyoto University] 20: 195–224.
2002. Seika-bun Kongō-kyō no kenkyū [Studies in the Tangut Version of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā]. D. Litt dissertation. Kyoto University.
2003. "Tokyō daigaku shozō Seikabun danpen ni tsuite - Seikago yaku 'Daichidoron' danpen" 東京大学所蔵西夏文断片について - 西夏語訳『大智度論』断片 [Tangut Fragments preserved in the University of Tokyo—The Tangut Version of the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa]; in Kyōto daigaku gengogaku kenkyū 京都大学言語学研究 [Linguistic Research of the Kyoto University] 22: 379–390.
2006. With E. I. Kychanov. Словарь тангутского (Си Ся) языка: тангутско-русско-англо-китайский словарь [Tangut-Russian-English-Chinese Dictionary]. Kyoto: Faculty of Letters, Tokyo University.
2008. "Daiē toshokan shozō Ka-Zō taion shiryō Or. 12380/3495 ni tsuite" 大英図書館所蔵夏蔵対音資料Or. 12380/3495 について [Tangut Buddhist fragment with Tibetan transcriptions: Or. 12380/3495 preserved in British Library]; in Kyōto daigaku gengogaku kenkyū 京都大学言語学研究 [Kyoto University Linguistic Research] 27: 203–212.
2012. "On the Tangut Verb Prefixes in 'Tiancheng Code'"; in Irina Popova (ed.), Тангуты в Центральной Азии: сборник статей в честь 80-летия проф. Е.И.Кычанова [Tanguts in Central Asia: a collection of articles marking the 80th anniversary of Prof. E. I. Kychanov] pp. 58–71. Moscow: Oriental Literature. ISBN 978-5-02-036505-6
2012. "Re-analysis of 'Tangut-Tibetan' Phonological Materials"; in Nathan W. Hill (ed.), Medieval Tibeto-Burman Languages IV. Brill, 2012. ISBN 9789004232020
Заслуги Н. А. Невского в исследовании тангутскогоязыка, Николай Невский: жизнь и наследие, 157--169, 2013年
On the Draft of a Tangut “Stone Launcher” -Tang. 46 inv. No. 156 (2006) st. inv. No. 5217 preserved in Oriental Manuscripts Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences-, Письменные памятники Востока, 2012年
プリンストン大学所蔵西夏文仏典断片(Pearld)について, Journal of Asian and African Studies, 83号, 5--36, 2012年
河西地域石窟の西夏文題記に関する覚書（３）, 東ユーラシア出土文献研究通信, 3号, 2013年
Re-analysis of the Tangut verb phrase based on a study of the word order, 西夏学, 9巻, 290--297, 2014年
On the Tangut verb phrase in The Sea of Meaning, Established by the Saints, Central Asiatic Journal, 57巻, 15--25, 2014年
