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1940年 長野市生まれ。中央大学法学部卒業。大学在学中、観光研究論文で日本交通公社賞を受賞。翌年、論文試験により大宅壮一塾に入塾。その講師の一人であった社会評論家の青地晨氏の仕事を手伝う。
大学卒業と同時に論壇誌「中央公論」に「東京散歩」を連載。その他、「現代の眼」、「朝日ジャーナル」等に執筆。表現自由の会に属し、田原総一朗氏や井出孫六氏と交流。その頃「信州の教育」を出版。
歴史学者の色川大吉氏と共に、ふだん記運動の主宰者・橋本義夫氏を支援し、自分史が記入できる年表「わたしの歴史」を出版。
孤島である宝島の民俗を描いた「時計の裏の共和国」で、週刊読売ノンフィクション賞を受賞。東京都の「明治建造物保存論」で読売新聞社賞を受賞。
「北斎の隠し絵」は、北斎の80歳代の肉筆画について初めて論じたもの。北斎の一生を描くテレビ番組（「知ってるつもり」「世界不思議発見」「極める」等）で、荒井氏の説で映像化。
1996年に長野市に戻り、歴史や美術についての執筆活動を続ける。1998年 国際北斎会議に合わせて北斎の一生を新しい視点で描く「新訳・北斎伝」を出版。

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Born in Nagano City in 1940, Arai graduated from the Faculty of Law at Chuo University, where he won the Japan Travel Bureau Award for his research on tourism. The following year he passed an essay test and enrolled in the Oya Soichi Tokyo Mass Communication School, where he worked closely with one of his teachers, social critic Shin Aochi.
When Arai graduated from university he began a regular column called Tokyo sanpo (Walk in Tokyo) in Chuo Koron, a magazine of political opinion, writing also for magazines such as Gendai no me (The Modern Eye) and Asahi janaru (The Asahi Journal). As a member of a society for freedom of expression he exchanged ideas with Soichiro Tahara and Magoroku Ide. Around this time, Arai also published Shinshu no kyoiku (Education in Shinshu).
In support of Yoshio Hashimotoﾕs Fudangi movement that promoted the writing of personal histories, Arai teamed up with historian Daikichi Irokawa to publish a chronological template for such records titled Watashi no rekishi (My History).
Arai received the Shukan yomiuri (Yomiuri Weekly) award for nonfiction for Tokei no ura no kyowakoku (The Republic Behind the Clock), about the folk customs of remote Takara Island. A few years later he received the Yomiuri Shimbun award for his writing on the preservation of Meiji period architecture in Tokyo.
Thirteen years ago, Arai published Hokusai no kakushi-e (Hokusai's Hidden Pictures), the first work to consider the paintings the artist produced in his eighties. Arai's theories on Hokusai were adapted to television on programs such as Shitteiru tsumori (What You Think You Know), Sekai fushigi hakken (Discover the Wonders of the World), and Kiwameru (Mastery).
Eight years ago Arai returned to Nagano to continue writing about history and art. In conjunction with the International Hokusai Festival in 1998, the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun newspaper commissioned him to write Shinﾕyaku hokusai-den (A New Biography of Hokusai), which looks at the artistﾕs life from a new perspective.