Paper short abstract:

Nobuyuki Okuma (1893–1977) published on a diverse range of subjects, namely economy, literature, and politics. Analyzing his writings the 1930s and 1940s, I argue that despite differences in subjects, they mirror each other in addressing the impact technology has on people’s “lives” (seikatsu).

Paper long abstract:

Nobuyuki Okuma (1893–1977) published on a diverse range of subjects, namely economy, literature, and politics. As an economist, he started his academic career with the study of the economic thought of John Ruskin and William Morris and later developed an economic theory of “life” (seikatsu). Concerning literature, he wrote a pioneering essay on reproductive art, as well as published Tanka poems among a proletarian poetry group. Regarding politics, during the early 1940s, Okuma planned a theoretical treatise of state that would enable him to distance himself from far-right nationalists while still supporting Japan’s wartime policy. After 1945, he appeared as a harsh critic of both progressive and conservative camps. What unites Okuma’s interests in these diverse subjects? Analyzing Okuma’s writings in the 1930s and 1940s, I argue that despite differences in subjects, they mirror each other in addressing the impact of emerging technology on people’s “lives” (seikatsu) that underlie every human activity, including labor, artistic creation and consumption, and politics. For example, his study on literature focuses on how technologies such as radio and television help specific forms of literary works become popular, thus changing the way people enjoy art. Indeed, his writings as a whole form a unified theory concerning technology, understood as “one of the most important problems in our real life,” which prompts us to build “a new perspective toward human lives (seikatsu).”