専門は、日本近世史。東京大学文学部を卒業、同大学院人文科学研究科を経て、1993年東京大学史料編纂所に就職。2007年『オランダ風説書と近世日本』で東京大学より博士（文学）を取得。
オランダ語史料と日本語史料を併用して研究を進めてきた。近年では、「国書」／常駐外交官／領事、通航管理、約条／契約／条約を切り口に、外交の世界史について考えている。日本史の蓄積を、世界に開いていく語り方にも関心がある。
著書に『オランダ風説書と近世日本』（東京大学出版会、角川源義賞受賞）、『オランダ風説書』（中公新書）、編著に『別段風説書が語る19世紀』（東京大学出版会）、『日蘭関係史をよみとく』上（臨川書店）がある。

Matsukata Fuyuko graduated from the Faculty of Letters and received a master's degree from the Graduate School of Humanities at the University of Tokyo, where she specialized in early modern Japanese history.  She received her PhD in Humanities from the University of Tokyo in 2008. As a faculty member at the Historiographical Institute, the University of Tokyo since (include year your started)  she has been engaged in editing the Oranda Shokansho Nikki [Diaries Kept by the heads of the Dutch Factory in Japan] In her own research,   she examines the history of early modern Japan's foreign relations primarily through   research of Dutch and Japanese sources.  Her monograph, Oranda Fusetsugaki to Kinsei Nihon [Dutch Reporting of World News during the Tokugawa Period: 1641-1859], is based on her doctoral research and was published by the University of Tokyo Press in 2007.  It was awarded the Kadokawa Gen'yoshi Prize in History in 2008.  She is currently researching kokusho [state letters], a credential system for resident diplomats and passes for border control, as it functioned in Japan and comparatively across early modern Eurasia.