Takemitsu Morikawa studied Economics, Economic History and the History of Social-scientific Thought at Keio University in Tokyo, where he was the recipient of a full scholarship. In 1997 he embarked upon a doctoral degree at the University of Kassel in Germany, supported by a PhD scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). After successfully completing his doctorate in sociology (magna cum laude) in 2001, he worked as a research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the Department for Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies of the University of Tokyo until 2004. In 2002, his PhD thesis "Handeln, Welt und Wissenschaft. Zur Logik, Erkenntniskritik und Wissenschaftstheorie für Kulturwissenschaften bei Friedrich Gottl und Max Weber" ("Action, World and Science. On Logics, Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in Friedrich Gottl and Max Weber") won the Nihon shakaigakushi gakkai (Japanese Society for the History of Sociology) young scholar award. Between 2005 and 2007, he led the project "Interkulturelle Vermittlung. Zur Bedeutung und Wirkung von Mori Ôgai im Prozess der kulturellen Modernisierung Japans" ("Intercultural Mediation. On Mori Ôgai's Significance for and Influence on the Process of Japanese Cultural Modernisation") in the Interdisciplinary Workgroup for Cultural Research at the University of Kassel, which was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). From 2009 to 2013, he then led the project "Transformation der Liebessemantik in Japan. Von der Frühen Neuzeit in die Neuzeit" ("The Transformation of the Semantics of Love in Japan. From the Early Modern to the Modern Era") at the Department of Sociology of the University of Lucerne. This project was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). In January 2012, he completed his habilitation at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Lucerne.

Since 1998, Takemitsu Morikawa has taught Sociology, Japanese Studies and Philosophy at the Universities of Kassel, Heidelberg, Lucerne, Zurich, Basel, Vienna, Freiburg (i.Br.), Fribourg (i.Ue), Duisburg-Essen as well as at Osaka University, Toyo University and University of Tokyo. Since 2018, he works as (full-)Professor for Sociology, with focus on sociological theories, history of sociology, sociology of culture and sociology of knowledge at Keio University in Tokyo.