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, 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.You can see their lists on いい本のまとめ, Kinokuniya, and other websites. Book reviews published in Asahi Newspaper can be found in the book Philosophy, Trauma, Sexuality: Book Reviews 1986-2001, 2015. His texts also appear in high-school textbooks, for example, 筑摩書房"精選現代文B". 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 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 a steering committee member of the International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life.Conference's site
Biography Morioka was born in Kōchi Prefecture, Japan, in 1958 and entered the University of Tokyo in 1977. In the beginning he studied physics and mathematics but he later turned to philosophy and ethics.Interview in 哲学者に会いにゆこう2 2017. In graduate school he specialized in bioethics and environmental ethics, a newly emerging field at that time as well as Wittgenstein's later philosophy.Masahiro Morioka, "The Structure of the Inner Life of a Philosopher: The Multi-Layered Aspects of Speech," in Tetsuo Yamaori (ed.) Nihonjin no Shisô no Jusôsei: Watashi no Shiza kara Kangaeru. Chikuma Shobo. April 1998, pp.77-100. (In Japanese) 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, Kyoto, 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's sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway that occurred in 1995Interview "科学万能改める時期" 北海道新聞 March 16, 1996. "同世代の「生」語る30代" 読売新聞 June 29, 1996. 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, Connecticut, US, 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 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."Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics" Publisher's webpage He published Painless Civilization, mentioned above, in 2003. This is considered by many his most important and influential book to date.Takahiro Miura "「出口のない道」のその先 : 森岡正博『無痛文明論』によせて" PDF His books on men's studies, also mentioned above, have been frequently referred to in the field of gender studies.[See https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/05/05/national/social-issues/professor-examines-lolita-complex-first-looking-experience/#.WhqFulVl-po Japan Times] etc. 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.子どもの脳死と臓器移植 Diet of Japan Report, February 2004.
He moved to the School of Human Sciences, Waseda University, in 2015. A critical study of antinatalist philosophy, Would It Have Been Better Never to Have Been Born? sparked much discussion in Japan in 2020.
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.Margaret Lock Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death 2001, University of California Press. Reconsidering Brain Death: A Lesson from Japan's Fifteen Years of Experience.
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".Consciousness Communication.
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.Epilogue of Confessions of a Frigid Man.
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.Yasunobu Nozaki, "Review of Masahiro Morioka. Life Studies Approaches to Bioethics: A New Perspective on Brain Death, Feminism, and Disability" Disability Studies Quarterly, 28(3), 2008. Painless Civilization and Fundamental Sense of Security: A Philosophical Challenge in the Age of Human Biotechnology. HTML. 鷲田清一『京都新聞』February 14, 2002.
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.Painless Civilization 1: A Philosophical Critique of DesireInterview "たのしい不便" 毎日新聞 October 15, 1999. Interview "「無痛文明」から脱出できますか" 産経新聞 February 15, 2000. "痛み失う現代文明" 日本経済新聞 November 22, 1998.
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".Confessions of a Frigid Man: A Philosopher's Journey into the Hidden Layers of Men's Sexuality PDF. Japan Times, MAY 5, 2017. 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."Blurring the boundaries" Japan Times, MAY 10, 2009. Nicolae Raluca, "Sōshoku(kei) Danshi:The (Un)gendered Questions on Contemporary Japan" Romanian Economic and Business Review 9(31), 2014. Ioana Fotache, "Matters of the Flesh: Japanese Herbivore Men and the Asexuality Umbrella" 2016.
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 Europe'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."Philosophy of Life in Contemporary Society" PDF
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.What Is Birth Affirmation?: The Meaning of Saying "Yes" to Having Been Born PDF
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, The Sense of Someone Appearing There: A Philosophical Investigation into Other Minds, Deceased People, and Animated Persona
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 2023 Painless Civilization 2: Painless Stream and the Fate of Love PDF Tokyo Philosophy Project, Open Access Book 2024 What Is Antinatalism? And Other Essays: Philosophy of Life in Contemporary Society, Second Edition PDF Tokyo Philosophy Project, Open Access Book 2025 How to Live in a Post-Religious Age: Terrorism, Philosophy, and the Meaning of Life PDF Tokyo Philosophy Project, Open Access Book
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 2023 Masahiro Morioka (ed.) Artificial Intelligence, Robots, and Philosophy (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)