Matsuura began his rise to prominence by winning the Japanese Formula Dream Championship in 2001, a performance that attracted Aguri Suzuki's attention and earned him a place in the ARTA Project driver development programme. He went on to finish second in the 2002 German Formula Three Championship, winning two races, and then third in the 2003 European Formula Renault V6 Eurocup, where he won three races. These results in European single-seater championships laid the groundwork for his move to North America, where he replaced Roger Yasukawa at Super Aguri Fernandez Racing in the IRL IndyCar Series for 2004.
In his debut IndyCar season, Matsuura was named both the Bombardier Rookie of the Year for the overall championship and the Bank One Rookie of the Year specifically for the Indianapolis 500. He finished fourteenth in the final championship standings, a respectable outcome for a driver adapting simultaneously to oval tracks, superspeedways, and road courses in a new country.
Matsuura remained with Super Aguri Fernandez Racing for 2005, again finishing fourteenth in the championship, with a best race finish of sixth in road course events. In 2006 he achieved his best IndyCar championship result, finishing thirteenth in the standings with a best individual finish of sixth. The steady progression across three seasons demonstrated his ability to extract competitive results from the team's machinery.
For 2007, the Autobacs Racing Team Aguri programme switched from Super Aguri Fernandez Racing to Panther Racing, pairing Matsuura with Brazilian driver Vítor Meira. The season proved difficult: Matsuura retired from six of the first eleven races and did not finish higher than eighth in the remainder, generating media and fan speculation that he might be dropped. On 20 July 2007, Speed TV published an article stating that Matsuura would be immediately replaced by Hideki Mutoh, an Autobacs Racing Team Aguri driver from the Indy Pro Series. The report turned out to be incorrect and was subsequently removed from the website, but it did not end the speculation around his future.
On 5 August 2007, Matsuura produced a career-best fourth-place finish at the Firestone Indy 400 at Michigan, a result that came in the aftermath of a major incident on the back straight that took out many of the front-running cars. Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network commentator Mike King suggested at the time that the result might help Matsuura retain his IndyCar seat. However, for 2008, long-time sponsor Panasonic transferred its backing to Mutoh at Andretti Green Racing, and Matsuura's full-time IndyCar career ended.
In August 2009, Conquest Racing announced that Matsuura would drive for the team at the 2009 Indy Japan 300 in a car sponsored by CLICK Securities Inc. He finished seventeenth in what was a part-time, one-off return to the series.
Matsuura returned to Japan for 2008 to race in the Formula Nippon series, reconnecting with domestic competition after his years in North America. He subsequently competed in the Super GT series, continuing his professional racing career in Japan's premier closed-cockpit championship.
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