Dai Fujikura was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1977. He moved to Europe at the age of fifteen and studied at Trinity College, London, with Daryl Runswick, with Edwin Roxburgh at the Royal College of London, and George Benjamin at King’s College, London.

In 2004, the London Sinfonietta premiered Fujikura's Fifth Station, conducted by Martyn Brabbins. Peter Eötvös, who was strongly encouraging of Fujikura's work, conducted the world premiere of Vast Ocean in 2005 at the Donaueschingen festival, with the Hilversum Radio Orchestra and the experimental studio Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung. In 2005, Pierre Boulez conducted the world premiere of Stream State in Lucerne; that same year, Fujikura was commissioned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain for Code 80, which premiered at the Cité de la Musique in Paris on the occasion of Boulez's 80th birthday.

Crushing Twister, a commission from the BBC Orchestra, premiered in 2006 at the BBC London Proms. That same year, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra included Fujikura's music in its Music Now series. Many other celebrated orchestras and ensembles have commissioned his compositions, including the Ensemble Modern – Vanishing Point (2004/2006) – Klangforum Wien, the BIT20 ensemble Wave Embraced (2006), the Orchestre de Radio France and the IRCAM – Swarming essence for orchestra and electronics (2006), the Ensemble Intercontemporain – Time unlocked and ...as I am... in 2007, and Secret Forest, which premiered at the Festival Musica in Strasbourg in 2009.

Other commissions include several concertos: Ampere, for piano for the Philharmonia Orchestra (2008); a Recorder Concerto that premiered at the Amsterdam Muziekgebouw in a performance by the Resonanz ensemble, conducted by Peter Rundel; a Double Bass Concerto commissioned by the London Sinfonietta in 2010; a Bassoon Concerto commissioned by Pascal Gallois and the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony in October 2012; a Flute Concerto, commissioned by the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra in 2015; and a Cello Concerto, which premiered in 2018.

Fujikura is a prolific composer who has also written numerous chamber music pieces, including Breathing Tides for oboe and shô, one of several pieces that include traditional Japanese instruments commissioned by the Okeanos ensemble; a second string quartet, Flare (2011), which was premiered by the Arditti Quartet, as well as several vocal pieces with texts by Harry Ross, including Lake Side,  Away we play (2010), papaver (2013), and Zawazawa (2016). Fujikura has also collaborated with the video artist Tomoya Yamaguchi on chamber music pieces such as Moromoro, for piano, tape, and video (2003), and Fluid Calligraphy for violin (2010).

His first opera, Solaris, with live electromics, a joint commission by the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the Lille and Lausanne Operas, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the IRCAM, premiered at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in 2015, directed and choreographed by Saburo Teshigawara. In 2017, he composed his second opera, The Gold-Bug with libretto by Edgar Allan Poe (which premiered in 2018).

Dai Fujikura has won many awards and honors, among them the Serocki International Composers Competition in 1998, the Huddersfiled Young Composers Prize in 1998, a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in 2004, the Claudio Abbado Prize in Vienna in 2005, the Paul Hindemith Prize at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in 2007, and a special prize from the Giga-Hertz-Awards in 2008. in 2009, his Secret Forest won the Otaka Prize and ...as I am... was awarded the Akutagawa Prize.