About Takeshi Morisato

I am currently serving as the editor of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy, an associate editor of theJournal of East Asian Philosophy (Springer), the general editor of the book series, “Studies in Japanese Philosophy” (Chisokudō Publications) and “Asian Philosophical Texts” (Mimesis International), and the regional editor of the Bloomsbury Introduction to World Philosophies.” I work on several book projects on a yearly basis and strongly believe that landing on a tenure track job with Japanese philosophy is harder than catching a unicorn.

Takeshi Morisato is philosopher and sometimes academic. He is the editor of the European Journal of Japanese Philosophy. He specializes in Asian and Japanese philosophy but he is also interested in making world philosophies accessible to a wider audience.

Takeshi's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Takeshi:

Gwyn McClelland, "Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki: Prayers, Protests and Catholic Survivor Narratives" (Routledge, 2019)

February 19, 2024

Dangerous Memory in Nagasaki

Gwyn McClelland
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

On 9th August 1945, the US dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Of the dead, approximately 8500 were Catholic Christians, representing over six…

Rin Ishigaki, "This Overflowing Light: Selected Poems" (Isobar Press, 2022)

May 26, 2023

This Overflowing Light

Rin Ishigaki
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

Born in central Tokyo in 1920, Rin Ishigaki was one of the most daring and gifted poets of Japan’s postwar cultural renaissance. She knew Japan before…

Ailton Krenak, "Life Is Not Useful" (Polity Press, 2023)

May 17, 2023

Life Is Not Useful

Ailton Krenak
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

Indigenous thinker and leader, Ailton Krenak, exposes the destructive tendencies of our ‘civilization’ in Life is not Useful (Polity, 2023), which is…

James W. Heisig, "In Praise of Civility" (Resource Publications, 2021)

March 17, 2023

In Praise of Civility

James W. Heisig
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

Through telling stories in this little book, In Praise of Civility (Resource Publications, 2021), James Heisig aims to provoke second thoughts about t…

Mohamed Tonsy, "You Must Believe in Spring" (Hajar Press, 2022)

March 14, 2023

You Must Believe in Spring

Mohamed Tonsy
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

You Must Believe in Spring (Hajar Press, 2022) is Mohamed Tonsy's "speculative fiction." It is about the future of Egypt when people's memory of the r…

James Heisig, "Of Gods and Minds: In Search of a Theological Commons" (Chisokudō Publications, 2019)

January 27, 2022

Of Gods and Minds

James Heisig
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

One of the trailblazers in the field of Japanese philosophy, James W. Heisig, delivered his five lectures in 2019 at Boston College as the Duffy Lectu…

Rebecca Corbett, "Cultivating Femininity: Women and Tea Culture in Edo and Meiji Japan" (U Hawaii Press, 2019)

January 17, 2022

Cultivating Femininity

Rebecca Corbett
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

The overwhelming majority of tea practitioners in contemporary Japan are women, but there has been little discussion on their historical role in tea c…

Hannah Kirshner, "Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town" (Viking, 2021)

November 8, 2021

Water, Wood, and Wild Things

Hannah Kirshner
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

Water, Wood, and Wild Things: Learning Craft and Cultivation in a Japanese Mountain Town (Viking, 2021) is memoir, ethnography, cookbook, and sketchb…

Matthew Carl Strecher, "The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami" (U Minnesota Press, 2014)

June 14, 2021

The Forbidden Worlds of Haruki Murakami

Matthew Carl Strecher
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

In an “other world” composed of language—it could be a fathomless Martian well, a labyrinthine hotel, or forest—a narrative unfolds, and with it the e…

Marnia Lazreg, "Foucault's Orient: The Conundrum of Cultural Difference, From Tunisia to Japan" (Berghahn Books, 2020)

February 17, 2021

Foucault's Orient

Marnia Lazreg
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

Foucault lived in Tunisia for two years and travelled to Japan and Iran more than once. Yet throughout his critical scholarship, he insisted that the …

Linda C. Ehrlich, "The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu: An Elemental Cinema" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019)

February 5, 2021

The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu

Linda C. Ehrlich
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

The Films of Kore-eda Hirokazu: An Elemental Cinema (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019) draws readers into the first 13 feature films and 5 of the documentarie…

Woojeong Joo, "Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro: Histories of the Everyday" (Edinburgh UP, 2017)

January 11, 2021

Cinema of Ozu Yasujiro

Woojeong Joo
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

One of the most well regarded of non-Western film directors, responsible for acknowledged classics like Tokyo Story (1953), Ozu Yasujiro worked during…

Gracia Liu-Farrer, "Immigrant Japan: Mobility and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society" (Cornell UP, 2020)

January 7, 2021

Immigrant Japan

Gracia Liu-Farrer
Hosted by Takeshi Morisato

Immigrant Japan? Sounds like a contradiction, but as Gracia Liu-Farrer shows in Immigrant Japan Mobility and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society…