(born January 31, 1987) is a Japanese

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

. He is an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

at the University of Tokyo. Saito works on ecology and political economy from a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

perspective. His latest bestseller, '' Capital in the Anthropocene'', has been credited for inspiring a resurgence of interest in Marxist thought in Japan.

Early life and education

After graduating from Shiba Junior & Senior High School (芝中学校・芝高等学校), a private school in Tokyo, Saito studied at first at the University of Tokyo (UT) for three months and voluntarily withdrew from the UT to enroll

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

from 2005 to 2009 as a Freeman Asian Scholarship recipient. He later began his master's studies at the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

in 2009, and then completed his doctorate at the

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. In 2016, Saito published the book ''Nature versus Capital. Marx's Ecology in his Unfinished Critique of Capitalism,'' which is based on his doctoral dissertation. In it, he performs the reconstruction of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

's ecological critique of capitalism, in which he draws on extensive manuscripts and excerpts from Marx's estate. Saito co-edited Volume 18 of Division Four of the

Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe ''Die Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe'' (''MEGA'') is the largest collection of the writing of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in any language. It is an ongoing project intended to produce a critical edition of the complete works of Marx and Engels tha ...

, which was published in 2019. Work on this book also informed his dissertation, which he completed at the

. Andreas Arndt was his doctoral advisor. In 2017, the English-language version of his book was published, and in 2020 he was awarded the JSPS Prize for it by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Furthermore, in 2018 Saito won the

Deutscher Memorial Prize The Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize is an annual prize given in honour of historian Isaac Deutscher and his wife Tamara Deutscher for a new book published in English "which exemplifies the best and most innovative new writing in or about ...

for Marxist Research named after Isaac Deutscher, holding the distinction as the first Japanese and youngest person to receive the award. Saito was subsequently a visiting scholar at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...

, and from 2017 to March 2022 he was an associate professor at Osaka Metropolitan University. He was made an associate professor at the University of Tokyo in April 2022. His 2020 published volume '' Capital in the Anthropocene'' became an unexpected bestseller in Japan, selling over 250,000 copies by May 2021, sales of which rose to more than 500,000 by mid-2022. In February 2023 he published ''Marx in the Anthropocene. Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism''.

Publications (selected)

*
Karl Marx's Ecosocialism: Capital, Nature, and the Unfinished Critique of Political Economy
', Monthly Review Press, 2017. * ,

Shueisha (lit. "Gathering of Intellect Publishing Co., Ltd.") is a Japanese company headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company was established in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The foll ...

, 2020. * ''Marx in the Anthropocene. Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism'',

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...

, 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saito, Kohei Living people 1987 births Marxist theorists Deutscher Memorial Prize winners Academic staff of Osaka City University Academic staff of the University of Tokyo Japanese Marxists Wesleyan University alumni Wesleyan University people

Early life and education

Publications (selected)

See also

References