Career
In 1925, Niida began his studies at the University of Tokyo, where he would eventually be awarded his doctorate. Niida was a professor and legal history scholar at the University of Tokyo. Among the students he influenced was Denis Twitchett, who studied with him in Tokyo in 1953-1954.
He is known for having written Chinese legal System (中國法制史, Chūgoku hōscience shi) which has been the subject of a multi-year process of translation into English.