Akira Kobata is a pioneer of the glycobiology of N-linked sugar chains. He established the basis of glycobiology by developing a series of reliable methods to analyse the structures of N-linked sugar chains. The sensitive methods established by him greatly contributed to our understanding of the structural characteristics of the sugar chains and the biosynthetic mechanisms responsible for the production of such characteristics. He also provided new aspects that the sugar chains of glycoproteins play an important role in cell-to-cell recognition, and that the structures of sugar chains are altered under physiological and pathological conditions, including many tumours and diseases on a structural basis. In this article, the author would like to sketch out Kobata's main contributions to glycobiology for the sake of young scientists, who are planning to enter this scientific field in the future.