Dr Furuta was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1923. He attended several schools in China but returned to Japan and took a medical degree at Okayama University. He held an internship at the National Hiroshima Hospital and completed his MD in 1950.

From 1949 to 1997 he was engaged in research across various Japanese academic establishments, with the exception of one year at Cincinnati University, Ohio, USA in 1957-8. From 1955 he began to research leprosy, and as Pathologist at Japan Baptist Hospital, in Kyoto in 1959-69 he began to autopsy leprosy patients from the Okayama National Leprosarium. From 1969 to 1987 he was Chief Pathologist of Kyoto National Hospital, and from 1987 to 1997 he was Chief Pathologist at Takeda Hospital, Kyoto. Whilst at Takeda Hospital he contributed to the leprosy study at Okayama Oku Komyoen.