Fujitani holds a joint professorship between the University of Bremen and the Leibniz Center for Marine Tropical Research (ZMT), where she leads the Deliberation, Valuation, and Sustainability research group and the Coastal Transformation program area.

Her research as an interdisciplinary marine social scientist focuses on social, economic, governance, and environmental dimensions of sustainable coastal livelihoods in the tropics, with a focus on tourism, fisheries, and aquaculture. Central to her research is the analysis of sustainability transformations, including the identification of leverage points, shifts from undesirable stable states, and the role of values and behavioral change in enhancing equity and multi-dimensional community well-being.

Her current research focuses on sustainability transformations in tourism. Employing mixed-method and participatory approaches, her research is strongly interdisciplinary and aims to generate knowledge that is both scientifically robust and socially relevant. She works closely with local communities, policymakers, and other societal actors to support context-sensitive and scalable pathways toward sustainable coastal development.

Her work contributes to broader sustainability discourse by linking empirical case studies from the tropics with conceptual advances on transformation processes in social-ecological systems. A key aim is to bridge science, policy, and practice in addressing complex coastal sustainability challenges.