IEA

Fellowship from October 2010 to March 2011

Research project:

"Reconsidering the concept of sovereignty"

First, I shall first revisit the history of discourses on the concept of sovereignty developed in the nineteenth century until now in the West and then examine the theory of sovereignty which could overcome the concept of the sovereign as the Almighty. According to my hypothesis based on my work on the theory of sovereignty put forward by a Japanese philosopher, the sovereign is not an existing sovereign, but he who acts as a legislator under the sovereignty of nothingness. The sovereign is not an existing one which possess the sovereign power of the Almighty, but he is the one against which individuals recognize one person in front of one another. In other words, the sovereign is not an autonomous subject who decides what is law in the manner of Carl Schmitt, but he is the heteronomous subject that is bound to provide equality of all individuals under the sovereignty of nothingness.

Biographical elements:

Born in 1970 in Osaka (Japan).
After studying law at the University of Tokyo, then the history of political and legal ideas in Kyoto University, he became assistant at the Kyoto University Archives (2001-2005). Lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities, Soai University (Osaka) since 2005 he is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities of the same institution, where he teaches history of modern thought in Japan and contemporary history of Japan.

His research focus on the institutional aspect of the training and development of the Japanese State in modernity. Up now it is developed in particular in his works like in Kitarou NISHIDA and question of the State (NISHIDA Kitarou to Kokka heno You, Ibunsha, 2007); Ikki Kita. The state and evolution (Kita Ikki. Kokka to Shinkai, Kodansha, 2009), "Loyalty to the Emperor and Patriotism. THE SPIRIT OF MEIJI in the regime of Meiji Constitution "(Chu-kun to Do koku. Kenpou Meiji-Taisei-niokeru SEISHIN MEIJI NO) in Research on the History of Spirit of the Meiji State. Around the SPIRIT of Meiji (Meiji Kokka no-Seishin-shi-teki-kenkyu. MEIJI NO SEISHIN wo megutte, Ibunsha, 2008). It is also the translator of French authors like Michel Foucault, Pierre Legendre, Alain SUPIOT etc. ..