Hiroshi Seto was born in Osaka Prefecture, Japan in 1952. He received a bachelor's degree in Chinese Literature from the First Faculty of Literature of Waseda University in 1975 and a master's degree in Chinese Literature from the Graduate School of Literature at Waseda University in 1978. Obtained a doctorate in this major in 1982.

After graduation, he served as a Japanese language expert at Northeast Normal University's Preparatory School for International Students in Japan, a non-resident lecturer at Waseda University, a (full-time) lecturer at Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science, and a professor at Setsunan University (retired in 2018). In addition, he served at Wuhan University. As Visiting professor of the Department of Art (2009-2012), visiting professor of Nantong University, and visiting professor of Southwest Minzu University  (2011-2014). He currently serves as an honorary professor at Setsunan University and a researcher at the Waseda University Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum

He has extensive academic works and has published many academic works, including Contemporary Drama in China (1991), Chinese Drama in the Twentieth Century - An Overview of the History of Chinese Drama (1999), A Study on the Formation of Chinese Spoken Drama (2005), Shakespeare in China (2016), Modern Drama in China - An Overview of the History of Chinese Drama (2018) etc.

Professor Hiroshi Seto came to the college as a visiting scholar in April 2019 to conduct a research on Cao Yu's works with the works Thunderstorm at his researching core, for a period of one year.