Kikuchi played for the Shimizu S-Pulse junior youth team and Shimizu Commercial High School, which has a strong soccer tradition with players such as Shinji Ono among its alumni. After graduating the school, he joined Júbilo Iwata and briefly loaned to Albirex Niigata. In 2002, he was invited to have a try-out at Arsenal and later went on to have another trial with Dutch team Feyenoord.
