Hiroki Azuma

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Template:Short description Template:For Template:Multiple issues Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox philosopher Template:Nihongo (born May 9, 1971) is a Japanese cultural critic, novelist, and philosopher. His specializations include Philosophy, Studies of Culture and Representation, and information society studies. He is a professor at ZEN University<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the co-founder of Genron,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> an independent institute in Tokyo, Japan.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Biography

Azuma was born in Mitaka, Tokyo. Azuma received his PhD in Culture and Representation from the University of Tokyo<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> in 1999 and became a professor at the International University of Japan in 2003. He was an Executive Research Fellow and Professor at the Center for Global Communications (GLOCOM) and a Research Fellow at Stanford University's Japan Center.<ref name=":0" /> Since 2006, he has been working at the Center for Study of World Civilizations at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Azuma is married to the writer and poet Hoshio Sanae, and they have one child together. His father-in-law is the translator, novelist, and occasional critic Kotaka Nobumitsu.

Overview of major works

Ontological, Postal (1998)

Template:Nihongo is Azuma's doctoral dissertation, published by Shinchosha in 1998. It investigated why Derrida, in the 1970s and 1980s, began writing texts in experimental styles rather than conventional academic philosophical essays. In this research, Azuma critically built upon the ideas of Japanese critics like Kojin Karatani and Akira Asada. The work was awarded the Suntory Literary Prize in 1999. To mark the 25th anniversary of Ontological, Postal's publication, a symposium was held in 2023, and a collection of essays based on the symposium was published in 2024.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Azuma demonstrated that the concept of deconstruction Derrida presented early in his career differed from the one he introduced in the 1970s.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> The former, which Azuma calls "Negative-Theological Deconstruction," focuses on "the unrepresentable 'hole' or 'crack' within the entire system of representation to dismantle the whole."<ref name=":2" /> Azuma criticized Negative-Theological Deconstruction, arguing that by exaggeratedly emphasizing the system's deficiency, it ultimately absolutizes the very system that contains that deficiency.<ref name=":2" />

As a critique of this, Azuma proposed the latter concept, "Postal Deconstruction."<ref name=":2" /> This deconstruction focuses on the "imperfection of the communication channel (media) in each instance, including failures in transmission/reception or mix-ups."<ref name=":2" /> Azuma asserts that this approach overcomes the problems of Negative-Theological Deconstruction. He conceptualized the process of Postal Deconstruction as misdelivery.<ref name=":2" />

Otaku: Japan's Database Animals (2001)

Template:Main In this book, Azuma presented a theoretical framework using otaku culture as a case study to analyze database consumption and the emergence of a new subjectivity in postmodern society. As of 2024, the book has exceeded 100,000 copies in print in Japan and has been translated into Korean, French, English, and Chinese.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

According to Stefan Hall, Azuma's work functions as a social commentary, arguing that otaku represent a specific type of postmodern condition—"database animals"—who seek "grand nonnarratives," thus eschewing the normative consumption mode that searches for deeper meaning.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> According to Fabian Schäfer and Martin Roth, Azuma's core ideas regarding databases overlap "surprisingly" with those presented in Lev Manovich's standard work, The Language of New Media.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Philosophy of the Tourist (2017)

In this book, Azuma uses the figure of the tourist to address major contemporary political and social impasses. Azuma connects the tourist to the idea of the "postal multitude," arguing that the tourist's experience often results in "misdelivery"—experiences diverging from expectations—which opens up space for "novel political insights."<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Yuk Hui identifies the book as an "essential philosophical exercise". The work is welcomed for its goal of responding to the "political impasse of our time," particularly the intensification of geopolitical conflicts and the limitations of the nation-state concept. Hui praises Azuma’s effort to "reinvent the tourist as a figure that heralds the possibility of transcending the limitations of the nation state". This effort is driven by Azuma’s stated refusal to accept a world where the "path toward the universal global citizen has been blocked" (Weltbürgertum).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Notable Awords

Works

Joint works

Novels

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