Career
In 1994, he moved to Kagoshima, Japan in order to find comets. His first discovery was Comet C/1995 Y1, on December 26, 1995. Hyakutake discovered C/1996 B2 while looking for C/1995 Y1, a comet he had discovered a few weeks before.
The media has stated that Hyakutake became interested in astronomy after seeing Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965.
He died in Kokubu, Kagoshima, in 2002 at age 51 of an aneurysm which had led to internal bleeding. Asteroid 7291 Hyakutake is named after him.