Main area of research

Kant’s practical philosophy/ ethics, German Idealism, Contemporary German applied ethics, theory of value, Modern Japanese philosophy.

The focus of my research lies on Kant’s philosophy and modern German philosophy and applied ethics, but I have recently also been studying the philosophy of modern Japanese thinkers such as Watsuji Tetsurô.

Since 2009 I have been conducting a joint research project on “human dignity” in cooperation with German philosophers (Prof. Schönrich, Birnbacher, Horn, Sturma, Kettner, Quante and others). Within this research project, I have been re-examining the concept of “dignity” from the perspective of value theory. Parts of the research findings have been presented at the Hitotsubashi Policy Forum, and been published in a special issue of the review Shisô. In connection with the topic of dignity, I have also concerned myself with questions of applied ethics, such as bioethics, and the social philosophy of the Frankfurt School (Honneth, Wellmer, Seel, Frazer), in particular its theory of recognition.

Within Japanese philosophy, I have mainly researched the writings of Watsuji Tetsurô, but I intend to also explore Sugimura Kôzô’s and Sôda Kiichirô’s work in the future.