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{{Short description|Japanese philosopher and critic (born 1971)}}
{{for|the Japanese footballer|Hiroki Azuma (footballer)}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Expand Japanese|topic=bio|東浩紀|reason=JA wikipedia has a decent biography with sources, need to bring that over|date=March 2016}}
{{update|date=November 2014}}
{{BLP sources|date=November 2011}}
}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox philosopher
| region           = [[Japanese philosophy]]
| era              = [[Contemporary philosophy]], [[20th-century philosophy]], [[21st-century philosophy]]
| name             = Hiroki Azuma
| native_name      = 東 浩紀
| birth_name       = <!-- only use if different from name -->
| birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|1971|05|09}}
| birth_place      = 
| death_date       = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} -->
| death_place      = 
| school_tradition = [[Continental philosophy]], [[deconstruction]], [[materialism]], [[Dualism (philosophy of mind)|dualism]]
| main_interests   = [[Metaphysics]], [[ontology]], [[ethics]], [[philosophy of language]], [[communication studies]], [[history of science]], [[philosophy of science]], studies of culture and representation, [[popular culture]], [[otaku|{{transliteration|ja|otaku}}]] studies, [[literary theory]], [[literary criticism]], [[social philosophy]], [[social thought]], [[information society]]
| notable_ideas    = Misdelivery, Singular/Plural transcendentness, Postal space, Animalization, [[Database consumption]], [[Moe (slang)#Commentary|{{transliteration|ja|moe}}-elements]], Gamelike realism, Disciplinary power/Environment-controlling power, Human/Animal publicness, General will 2.0, Weak ties, Villagers/Travelers/Tourists, Postal Multitude
| other_names      = 
| occupation       = [[Cultural critic]]
| years_active     = 
| website          = 
}}
{{nihongo|'''Hiroki Azuma'''|東 浩紀|Azuma Hiroki}} (born May 9, 1971) is a Japanese [[cultural critic]], [[novelist]], and [[philosopher]]. He is the co-founder and former director of [[Genron]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=English |url=https://genron.co.jp/en |access-date=June 6, 2023 |website=株式会社ゲンロン |language=ja}}</ref> an independent institute in Tokyo, Japan.<ref>{{Cite web |date=October 15, 2016 |title=Hiroki Azuma {{!}} Not Political, but Database, Animals: Towards a political semi-transparent interface |url=https://www.caa-ins.org/archives/429 |access-date=June 6, 2023 |website=网络社会研究所 |language=zh-CN}}</ref>

==Biography==
Azuma was born in [[Mitaka, Tokyo]]. Azuma received his [[PhD]] in Culture and Representation from the [[University of Tokyo]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Hiroki Azuma|url=https://www.japansociety.org/content.cfm/hiroki_azuma|access-date=October 29, 2020|website=www.japansociety.org|language=en|archive-date=October 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031130937/https://www.japansociety.org/content.cfm/hiroki_azuma|url-status=dead}}</ref> in 1999 and became a professor at the [[International University of Japan]] in 2003. He was an Executive Research Fellow and Professor at the [[Center for Global Communications]] (GLOCOM) and a Research Fellow at [[Stanford University]]'s Japan Center.<ref name=":0" /> Since 2006, he has been working at the Center for Study of World Civilizations at the [[Tokyo Institute of Technology]].

Azuma is married to the writer and poet Hoshio Sanae<!--Q11277729-->, and they have one child together. His father-in-law is the translator, novelist, and occasional critic Kotaka Nobumitsu.

==Work==
Hiroki Azuma is one of the most influential young [[literary criticism|literary critics]] in Japan, focusing on literature and on the idea of individual liberty.<ref name=":0" />

He began writing inspired by the work of [[Kojin Karatani]] and [[Akira Asada]]. He is an associate of [[Takashi Murakami]] and the [[Superflat]] movement. His publishing debut was "[[Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn|Solzhenitsyn]] Essay" in 1993. Azuma handed the work directly to Karatani during his lecture series at [[Hosei University]] which Azuma was [[Academic audit|auditing]].

Azuma launched his career as a literary critic in 1993 with a postmodern style influenced by leading Japanese critics [[Kojin Karatani]] and [[Akira Asada]]. In the late 1990s, Azuma began examining various pop phenomena, especially the emerging [[otaku]]/<ref>{{Cite web |title=Otaku |url=https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/otaku |access-date=June 6, 2023 |website=University of Minnesota Press |language=en}}</ref>[[Internet]]/[[video game]] culture, and became widely known as an advocate of the thoughts of a new generation of Japanese. He is interested in the transformation of the Japanese literary imagination under its current “otaku-ization.”

Azuma has published seven books,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Hiroki Azuma: The philosopher of 'otaku' speaks|url=https://japantoday.com/category/features/hiroki-azuma-the-philosopher-of-otaku-speaks|access-date=October 29, 2020|website=Japan Today|language=en}}</ref> including ''Sonzaironteki, Yubinteki'' (''Ontological, Postal'')<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hiroki Azuma |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/author/hiroki-azuma-38638/ |access-date=June 6, 2023 |website=MIT Press |language=en-US}}</ref> in 1998, which focuses on [[Jacques Derrida]]'s oscillation between literature and philosophy. This work won the [[Suntory Literary Prize]] in 2000<ref name=":1" /> and made Azuma the youngest writer to ever win that prize. Akira Asada stated that it is one of the best books written in the 90s; however, [[Hiroo Yamagata]] pointed out that the book is based on the misunderstanding of [[Gödel's incompleteness theorem]]. He also wrote ''Dobutsuka-suru Postmodern'' (2001, lit, ''Animalizing Postmodernity''; translated as ''[[Otaku: Japan's Database Animals]]'' in 2009), which analyzes Japanese pop culture through a postmodern lens and uses the term "[[database consumption]]" to describe a new paradigm of media consumption that consumes elements of a narrative rather than a narrative itself.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ruh |first=Brian |url=http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/brain-diving/2011-01-11 |title=Ace of Database |work=Anime News Network |date=January 11, 2011 }}</ref> He has also set up a [[non-profit organization]] to encourage cutting-edge critics who might be shut out of the existing publishing world.

==Works==
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|存在論的、郵便的－ジャック・デリダについて}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|郵便的不安達}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|不過視なものの世界}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|動物化するポストモダン―オタクから見た日本社会}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|ゲーム的リアリズムの誕生―動物化するポストモダン2}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|文学環境論集―東浩紀コレクションL}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|情報環境論集―東浩紀コレクションS}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|批評の精神分析―東浩紀コレクションD}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|郵便的不安たちβ}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|サイバースペースはなぜそう呼ばれるか}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|一般意志2.0―ルソー、フロイト、グーグル}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|セカイからもっと近くに―現実から切り離された文学の諸問題}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|弱いつながり―検索ワードを探す旅}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|ゲンロン0―観光客の哲学}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|ゆるく考える}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|テーマパーク化する地球}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|哲学の誤配}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|新対話篇}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|ゲンロン戦記――「知の観客」をつくる}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|忘却にあらがう 平成から令和へ}}
*Hiroki Azuma. (2007) "The Animalization of Otaku Culture" [[Mechademia]] '''2''' 175–188.
*Hiroki Azuma. ''Otaku: Japan's Database Animals.'' Minneapolis: [http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/A/azuma_otaku.html University of Minnesota Press], 2009.
*Hiroki Azuma. ''General Will 2.0: Rousseau, Freud, Google'', 2014.
*Hiroki Azuma. ''Philosophy of the Tourist'', 2023.

==Joint works==
*Kiyoshi Kasai ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|動物化する世界の中で}}
*Masachi Osawa ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|自由を考える――9・11以降の現代思想}}
*Akihiro Kitada ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|東京から考える――格差・郊外・ナショナリズム}}
*Eiji Otsuka ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|リアルのゆくえ――おたく/オタクはどう生きるか}}
*Shinji Miyadai ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|父として考える}}
*Naoki Inose ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|正義について考えよう}}
*Ken Oyama ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|ショッピングモールから考える――ユートピア・バックヤード・未来都市}}
*Yoshinori Kobayashi ＆ Shinji, Miyadai ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|戦争する国の道徳――安保・沖縄・福島}}
*Ken Oyama ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|ショッピングモールから考える付章――庭・オアシス・ユートピア}}
*Daisuke Tsuda ＆ Junichiro Nakagawa ＆ Takeshi Natsuno ＆ Hiroyuki Nishimura ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|ニコニコ超トークステージ――ネット言論はどこへいったのか？}}
*Atsushi Sasaki ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|再起動する批評――ゲンロン批評再生塾第一期全記録}}
*Nozomi Omori ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|SFの書き方――「ゲンロン 大森望 SF創作講座」全記録}}
*Makoto Ichikawa ＆ Satoshi Osawa ＆ Ryota Fukushima ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|現代日本の批評1975-2001}}
*Makoto Ichikawa ＆ Satoshi Osawa ＆ Atsushi Sasaki ＆ Sayawaka ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|現代日本の批評1975-2001}}
*Hidetaka Ishida ＆ Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|新記号論――脳とメディアが出会うとき}}

==Novels==
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|クォンタム・ファミリーズ}}
*Hiroki Azuma. {{Lang|ja|クリュセの魚}}

==See also==
*[[Moe (slang)|Moe]]
*[[Kojin Karatani]]
*[[Akira Asada]]
*[[Eiji Ōtsuka]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*[http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/authors/item/1092-hiroki-azuma J'Lit | Authors : Hiroki Azuma | Books from Japan] {{in lang|en}}

==External links==
*[http://www.hirokiazuma.com/e/ Hiroki Azuma's homepage and blog] {{in lang|en}}
**[http://www.hirokiazuma.com/en/texts/deconstructions.html "Two Deconstructions: toward the theoretical understanding of Derrida's postal metaphors"]
**[https://web.archive.org/web/20090122070446/http://www.hirokiazuma.com/en/texts/superflat_en1.html "Superflat Japanese Postmodernity"]
*[http://www.ntticc.or.jp/pub/ic_mag/ic018/intercity/higashi_E.html "Anime, or something like it:] [[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]"
*[http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9802/msg00101.html "Towards a cartography of Japanese anime: Anno Hideaki's >>Evangelion<<. Interview  with Azuma Hiroki"]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azuma, Hiroki}}
[[Category:1971 births]]
[[Category:Anime and manga critics]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century Japanese philosophers]]
[[Category:Japanese novelists]]
[[Category:People from Mitaka, Tokyo]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Tokyo Institute of Technology]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Waseda University]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Tokyo]]
[[Category:University of Tokyo alumni]]
[[Category:Yukio Mishima Prize winners]]
[[Category:Japanese magazine editors]]