is a Japanese philosopher, who has contributed to the fields of philosophy of life, bioethics, gender studies, media theory, and civilization studies. He is a professor of philosophy and ethics at

Waseda University , mottoeng = Independence of scholarship , established = 21 October 1882 , type = Private , endowment = , president = Aiji Tanaka , city = Shinjuku , state = Tokyo , country = Japan , students = 47,959 , undergrad = 39,382 , postgrad ...

, Japan. He coined the term "life studies" for an integrated approach to the issues of life, death, and nature in contemporary society. Since 2006 he has proposed a new philosophical discipline he calls "philosophy of life". He has published numerous academic books and articles, mainly in Japanese, and has regularly contributed commentaries and book reviews to major Japanese newspapers and magazines. His books include ''Painless Civilization'', which criticizes the incessant attempts to escape from pain and suffering in modern civilization, ''Confessions of a Frigid Man: A Philosopher's Journey into the Hidden Layers of Men's Sexuality'', which illuminates some of the darker sides of

male sexuality Human male sexuality encompasses a wide variety of feelings and behaviors. Men's feelings of attraction may be caused by various physical and social traits of their potential partner. Men's sexual behavior can be affected by many factors, incl ...

such as the " Lolita complex" and male frigidity, and ''Lessons in Love for Herbivore Men'', one of the books that helped popularize the term " herbivore men". He is the editor-in-chief of ''Journal of Philosophy of Life'', an associate editor of '' Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics'', and an organizing committee member of the International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life.

Biography

Morioka was born in

Kōchi Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 757,914 (1 December 2011) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and ...

, Japan, in 1958 and entered

The University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in 1977. In the beginning he studied physics and mathematics but he later turned to philosophy and ethics. In graduate school he specialized in bioethics and environmental ethics, a newly emerging field at that time as well as Wittgenstein’s later philosophy. He published two books on bioethics, ''An Invitation to the Study of Life'' and ''Brain Dead Person'', and moved to the

International Research Center for Japanese Studies The , or Nichibunken (日文研), is an inter-university research institute in Kyoto. Along with the National Institute of Japanese Literature, the National Museum of Japanese History, and the National Museum of Ethnology, it is one of the Nati ...

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin, Keihanshin metropolitan area along wi ...

, in 1988. There he wrote several books including ''How to Live in a Post-religious Age'' and ''Consciousness Communication''; the former is a philosophical and psychological analysis of

Aum Shinrikyo , formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year. The group says ...

’s

sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway The was an act of domestic terrorism perpetrated on 20 March 1995, in Tokyo, Japan, by members of the cult movement Aum Shinrikyo. In five coordinated attacks, the perpetrators released sarin on three lines of the Tokyo Metro (then ''Teito Rapid ...

that occurred in 1995 and the latter discusses subconscious interactions in the age of computer communications (''Consciousness Communication'' won The Telecom Social Science award in 1993). He spent one year as a visiting scholar at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a private liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church and with the support of prominent residents of Middletown, the col ...

, Connecticut, USA, in 1991. In 1997, he moved to Osaka Prefecture University where he taught philosophy and ethics. In 2001 he published ''Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics'', in which he discussed brain death and organ transplantation, feminist bioethics and abortion, the

disability rights The disability rights movement is a global social movement that seeks to secure equal opportunities and equal rights for all people with disabilities. It is made up of organizations of disability activists, also known as disability advocat ...

movement, and new forms of eugenics from the perspective of “life studies.” In this book he introduces concepts such as "the fundamental sense of security" and "the reality of a deeply shaken self", which he discovered through an examination of Japanese bioethics literature written in the 1970s. He published ''Painless Civilization'', mentioned above, in 2003. This is considered by many his most important and influential book to date. His books on men’s studies, also mentioned above, have been frequently referred to in the field of gender studies. He published ''Manga Introduction to Philosophy'' in 2013. He played an important role in the revision of the organ transplantation law in Japan in the years 2000-2009. He asserted that organs should not be harvested from small children who have been declared brain dead but his proposal was ultimately rejected by the

Diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

. He moved to the School of Human Sciences,

, in 2015.

Key concepts

Brain death as a human relationship

Morioka defines brain death not as a material process occurring inside the brain but as a human relationship formed between a comatose patient and his/her family members or others who surround him/her. He calls this a "human relationship oriented analysis" approach to bioethics. He claims that brain death is not necessarily human death.

Consciousness communication

In his 1993 book ''Consciousness Communication'' he distinguished "consciousness communication", communication for the purpose of social interaction itself, from "information communication", communication used as a tool for conveying information. He predicted that consciousness communication would play a central role in the coming information society, and put forward the concepts of "community of anonymity" and "dream navigator".

Life studies

Morioka calls his comprehensive approach to the issues of life, death, and nature "life studies". The ultimate goal of life studies is to help people to live their lives without regret. Morioka asserts that the most important aspect of life studies is never to detach ourselves from the problems we are tackling and never to think of ourselves as exceptions; He encourages us to keep our eyes on our own desires and the evil that he believes is deeply engraved in our hearts.

Fundamental sense of security

The fundamental sense of security is one of the central concepts in Morioka’s philosophy. In the book ''Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics'' he describes this as "a sense of security that allows me to strongly believe that even if I had been unintelligent, ugly, or disabled, my existence in the world itself would have been equally welcomed, and whether I succeed or fail, and even if I become a doddering old man, my existence will continue to be welcomed". He asserts that this is a precondition of our being able to live our lives without regret.

Painless civilization

Morioka asserts that our contemporary civilization is developing in the form of a "painless civilization". He asserts that this civilization's limitless penchant for eliminating pain and suffering makes us completely lose sight of the meaning of life that is indispensable to human beings and deprives us of the joy of life in exchange for pleasure, pleasantness, and comfort. He further claims that people in advanced countries know that they are drowning in the tide of their painless civilization but do not know how to escape from it.

Frigid man / Herbivore men

Morioka uses the phrase "frigid man" to describe a man who suffers from sexual frigidity caused by "male frigidity" and has a (sub-conscious) attraction toward young girls, especially girls wearing school uniforms. Many Japanese adult males suffer from this condition and love to see the images of young girls in the mass media and on the Internet. This is the pathology hidden behind the Japanese male's "Lolita complex". In Morioka's writings, " herbivore men" are timid young Japanese men who are inexperienced and unassertive in love and sex. Just after the publication of Morioka's book, ''Lessons in Love for Herbivore Men'', 2008, the term "herbivore men" became a buzz word in Japan and was reported worldwide.

Philosophy of life

The philosophy of life is a new discipline in contemporary philosophy that aims to examine the topics of life, death, and nature from various philosophical angles. It widens the scope of the 19th century's Lebensphilosophie and encompasses contemporary bioethics, environmental philosophy, philosophy of biology, biopolitics, the study of the meaning of human life, and other areas of research.

Birth affirmation

This is one of the key concepts in Morioka's philosophy of life. Birth affirmation means to be able to say yes, from the bottom of our hearts, to the fact that we have been born. Morioka distinguishes "birth affirmation" from similar concepts such as "survival affirmation" and "affirmation of one's whole life". He considers "birth negation" as the worst form of human evil.

Animated persona

The soundless voice saying "I am here" that appears on the surface of something or someone. Morioka argues that it appears on a corpse, a wooden mask, or even a tree, as a kind of personhood. Animated Persona: The Ontological Status of a Deceased Person Who Continues to Appear in This World
/ref>

Publications

Books (English)

* 2017 ''Confessions of a Frigid Man: A Philosopher's Journey into the Hidden Layers of Men's Sexuality''
PDF
Tokyo Philosophy Project, Open Access Book * 2021 ''Manga Introduction to Philosophy: An Exploration of Time, Existence, the Self, and the Meaning of Life''
PDF
Tokyo Philosophy Project, Open Access Book * 2021 ''Painless Civilization 1: A Philosophical Critique of Desire''
PDF
Tokyo Philosophy Project, Open Access Book * 2021 ''What Is Antinatalism? And Other Essays: Philosophy of Life in Contemporary Society'' Tokyo Philosophy Project

Books (English, Edited by Morioka)

* 2015 Masahiro Morioka (ed.) ''Reconsidering Meaning in Life: A Philosophical Dialogue with Thaddeus Metz '' (Journal of Philosophy of Life)
PDF
Open Access Book * 2017 Masahiro Morioka (ed.) ''Nihilism and the Meaning of Life: A Philosophical Dialogue with James Tartaglia '' (Journal of Philosophy of Life)
PDF
Open Access Book

Books (Japanese, incomplete)

* 1988 ''An Invitation to the Study of Life'' (生命学への招待 Keiso Shobo, in Japanese) * 1989 ''Brain-Dead Person: Human Relationship-Oriented Analysis of Brain Death'' (脳死の人 Tokyo Shoseki, in Japanese)

* 1993 ''Consciousness Communication'' (意識通信 Chikuma Shobo, in Japanese) * 1994 ''Reconsidering the View of Life'' (生命観を問いなおす Chikuma Shobo, in Japanese) * 1996 ''How to Live in a Post-Religious Age'' (宗教なき時代を生きるために Hozokan, in Japanese) * 1997 ''An Intellectual Method of Facing Oneself'' (自分と向き合う「知」の方法 PHP Publications, in Japanese) * 2001 ''Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics: A New Perspective on Brain Death, Feminism, and Disability'' (生命学に何ができるか：脳死・フェミニズム・優生思想 Keiso Shobo, in Japanese) * 2001 ''Life Torn Apart'' (引き裂かれた生命 kinokopress.com, in Japanese) * 2003 ''Painless Civilization: A Philosophical Critique of Desire'' (無痛文明論 Transview Publications, in Japanese) * 2005 ''Confessions of a Frigid Man: A Philosopher's Journey into the Hidden Layers of Men's Sexuality'' (感じない男 Chikuma Shobo, in Japanese) * 2005 ''Life Studies for Beginners: A Philosophy for Facing Oneself'' (生命学をひらく Transview, in Japanese) * 2008 ''Lessons in Love for Herbivore Men'' (草食系男子の恋愛学 Media Factory, in Japanese) * 2009 ''Herbivore Men will Bring Your Last Love'' (最後の恋は草食系男子が持ってくる Magazine House, in Japanese) * 2009 ''The 33rd Stone: A Philosophy for a Wounded Age'' (３３個めの石 Shunju Sha, in Japanese) * 2012 ''Connecting the Living and the Deceased: A Philosophy for Requiescat and Rebirth'' (生者と死者をつなぐ Shunju Sha, in Japanese) * 2013 ''Manga Introduction to Philosophy'' (まんが哲学入門 Koudan sha, in Japanese) * 2015 ''Philosophy, Trauma, Sexuality: Book Reviews 1986-2001'' (書評という快楽 Kinokopress, in Japanese) * 2015 ''A Philosophical Inquiry into Personhood, Dignity, and Brain Death'' (脳死概念における人格性と尊厳の哲学的研究, Kinokopress, in Japanese) * 2020 ''Is It Better Never to Have Been Born?'' (生まれてこないほうがよかったのか？, Chikuma Shobo, in Japanese)

Selected English papers

* 1991 The Concept of Life in Contemporary Japan. (Former title: The Concept of Inochi
PDF
* 2001 Reconsidering Brain Death: A Lesson from Japan's Fifteen Years of Experience. * 2005 Painless Civilization and Fundamental Sense of Security: A Philosophical Challenge in the Age of Human Biotechnology
PDF
* 2011 Natural Right to Grow and Die in the Form of Wholeness: A Philosophical Interpretation of the Ontological Status of Brain-dead Children
PDF
* 2011 Narrative Responsibility and Moral Dilemma
PDF
With Takanobu Kinjo * 2013 A Phenomenological Study of “Herbivore Men.�
PDF
* 2015 Feminism, Disability, and Brain Death: Alternative Voices from Japanese Bioethics
PDF
* 2015 Is Meaning in Life Comparable?: From the Viewpoint of ‘The Heart of Meaning in Life’
PDF
* 2017 Philosophy of Life in Contemporary Society
PDF
* 2017 The Trolley Problem and the Dropping of Atomic Bombs
PDF
* 2019 A Solipsistic and Affirmation-Based Approach to Meaning in Life
PDF
* 2021 What Is Antinatalism?: Definition, History, and Categories
PDF
* 2021 What Is Birth Affirmation?: The Meaning of Saying “Yes” to Having Been Bor
PDF
* 2021 Animated Persona: The Ontological Status of a Deceased Person Who Continues to Appear in This World
PDF