By Pablo León (El País)
The philosopher Kohei Saito, born in Tokyo in 1987, is a star of Marxism in Japan. In his country, his book Hitoshinsei no Shihonron (Capital in the Anthropocene), published in its original version in 2020 and not translated into English, has sold more than half a million copies. His books synthesize his research, which articulates Marxism and ecology. "In the United States, but also in Spain, the term 'communism' has negative connotations. In Japan, it's pretty much the same," Saito says from his office at the University of Tokyo, where he is an associate professor and "the only" expert on Marxism. He also published Nature vs. Capital: Marx's Ecology in His Unfinished Critique of Capital (Syllepse, 2021).
From his point of view, Marxism is not outdated. His bookplate is in the form of a pretty stamp featuring his own caricature, standing next to a seated Karl Marx. After...
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