was a Japanese scholar of modern Japanese literature. He was a professor at Ritsumeikan University and held senior administrative roles at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University and Poole Gakuin University. His research focused on the writer Atsushi Nakajima, a writer at the beginning of the Shà Âwa period.
Kimura began his academic career as an associate professor at Kumamoto Joshi Daigaku in 1979. In 1984, he served as a visiting professor in the Faculty of Letters at the University of Indonesia. He joined Ritsumeikan University in 1991 as a professor in the Faculty of Letters.
In 2000, Kimura became a professor at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu, where he served as Vice Rector of Student Affairs. He received a Doctor of Literature from Ritsumeikan University in 2000. He later returned to Ritsumeikan University, serving as Dean of the Faculty of Letters in 2005. In 2006, he became director of the Kyoto Prefectural Domoto Insho Art Museum (Kyotofuritsu Domotoinsho Bijutsukan).
Kimura was named Professor Emeritus of Ritsumeikan University in 2010. That year he became president of Poole Gakuin University in Osaka, and was later named Professor Emeritus of Poole Gakuin University in 2014. In 2015, he became president of the College of Osaka Seikei.