Growing Idea of Degrowth

The Heterodox Idea Found a Welcoming Home in Japan. But Why?

Image credit: Ania Korsunska

I'm part of a very small group of friends who like to talk about ideas. We've chosen a high-browed name of "Economics Working Group," but in reality, it's just a book club. We spend a good chunk of our meeting time giving life updates and chatting about politics in Japan and the US. It's good fun and helps me keep my Japanese sharp.

But we do actually read and discuss books. And in the two or so years that I've been in this group, a disproportionate number of books we've read deal with heterodox ideas on what might come after capitalism. In particular, we like to read about degrowth.

It's through our little book club that I discovered how many books, articles, and videos in Japan wrestle with the idea of degrowth.

So, today's post is my reflection on what some of these books might tell us about how widespread the degrowth idea is in Japan. This is very much anecdotal, so I welcome your thoughts and comments.

What's degrowth anyway?

At the risk of being drawing ire from the degrowthers out there, here's my feeble attempt at a brief description of the idea:

Modern industrialized economies, as well as the academic discpline of economics, take for granted that economic growth can continue endlessly. Not only that, policymakers, business leaders, and academic economists hold an unstated belief that the economy should grow without limit.

Proponents of degrowth argue that economic growth is predicated on the continuous extraction of natural resources, and so infinite growth in a world in which resources are finite is, by definition, impossible. In fact, the pursuit of infinite growth is what led civilization down the path of climate change, ecological destruction, biodiversity loss, water scarcity, and the whole host of planetary boundary breaches. So, degrowth argues, we need a paradigm shift to create economies that don't prioritize growth. Instead, we need societies that optimize human wellbeing, foster communities, and exist sustainably within the finite resources on this planet.

The specific solutions that the degrowth literature offers are legion. It runs the gamut from leaving capitalism behind and welcoming Marx (as we'll see below), reforming financial and fiscal policies, restricting advertisements, prohibiting planned obsolescence, instituting universal basic income, to many others. The broad spectrum of policy or political prescriptions is a testament to the attractiveness of the core idea to thinkers from a wide swath of intellectual backgrounds.

Regardless of the specific prescription or background, though, degrowthers everywhere will be quick to tell you that "degrowth" is far from an economy in recession or depression. The unemployment and backrupties that accompany recessions are symptoms of an economy that's pursuing growth but failing to grow. There's a bright line separating that sad state of affairs with an economy that has intentionally abandoned the destructive goal of infinite growth.

Okay, that was a much longer description than I intended to write. But as Mark Twain is accused of saying, I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

Let's talk about some of the degrowth books in Japan and what they might tell us about the state of the idea there.

A Bustling Market for Degrowth in Japan

Since I joined our little book club about two years ago, we've read around five books and several articles on degrowth.

When talking about the intellectual groundswell of degrowth in Japan, it's obligatory to mention Saitō Kōhei's recent book, Capital in the Anthropocene for its meteoric rise to the status of a modern classic. Published in September 2020, I had a chance to read it soon after it came out. To everyone's surprise, including the young author himself, it was an enormous hit. As of a year ago, half a million copies were sold in Japan.

Saito Kohei’s Capital in the Anthropocene (Source: Shueisha Shinsho)

With a PhD in philosophy from Humboldt University of Berlin, my understanding is that this book was essentially a popularized version of Saitō's doctoral dissertation.

In a nutshell, the two central theses of this book are 1) contrary to how most people read Marx and how socialist states tried to implement Marxist ideas in the twentieth century, Marx actually believed in degrowth and is relevant to our own times; 2) what's needed in our own era is to move past capitalism and towards what Saito calls "degrowth communism," in the way Marx envisioned.

Since Capital in the Anthropocene, Saitō has become something of a celebrity public intellectual and has been interviewed and profiled in a number of outlets. But he's also been busy writing other books and collaborating with other writers/scholars.

One such book that we picked up recently in our book club is Mirai no tame no Shūmatsuron. As far as I can tell, it hasn't been translated into English, but a direct translation of the title would be Eschatology for the Future. Most of the book is a conversation between Saitō and sociologist Ōsawa Masachi on the similarities and differences between the theories of Saitō and the late renowned sociologist Mita Munesuke.

Mirai no tame no Shūmatsuron (Source: Sayūsha)

The conversation in the book has a clarifying function. In it, we see that Saitō doesn't advocate a Bolshevik-style revolution in the name of degrowth communism, as some of his critics apparently claim. Instead, his views sound much closer to some of the other, dare I say "moderate" degrowthers who want to change the incentive structures in capitalism that fuel the pursuit of endless growth, instead of "overthrowing" anything. Bringing in the language of Marxism and communism in his Capital in the Anthropocene was partly for their shock value in a country like Japan, where radical leftist ideas virtually have no place in mainstream political discourse. This book also gives a nice account of the intellectual history of economic sociology in Japan.

Another indicator of how widely the degrowth idea is being soaked up among certain pockets of the reading population in Japan is the fact that quite a few books originally published in English are being quickly translated into Japanese.

The Case for Degrowth by Giorgios Kallis, Suan Paulson, Giacomo D'Alisa, Federico Demaria is a case in point. First published in English in November 2020, its Japanese version quickly followed suit in April 2021. Like other degrowth books, this one starts with the premise that a defining characteristic of contemporary societies is the relentless pursuit of economic growth. But, the authors argue, this pursuit ultimately benefits only a few and demands enormous social and ecological sacrifice. They methodically make a case for degrowth as a viable alternative, putting at its center the values of living well with less, wellbeing, equity and sustainability.

Original and Japanese versions of The Case for Degrowth (Sources: Wiley and NHK Publishing)

Jason Hickel's Less is More is another example of a book translated into Japanese. Hickel is arguably the best-known degrowth proponent in the English-speaking world, the Japanese publishers were quick to import his work.

Original and Japanese versions of Less Is More (Sources: Penguin Books and Tōyō Keizai)

The last example I'll mention here is not exactly a translation, but a short book that records a conversation between ecological economist Herman Daly and journalist and translator Edahiro Junko. Daly is known for his work on the "steady-state economy," a term he coined to describe a society that is affluent without pursuing unlimited growth. As a theorist his career as an academic economist and as a policymaker at the World bank, Daly’s theory of a steady-state economy is far more elaborate and grounded in the concepts of economics compared to, say, Saitō or Hickel, whose approaches are more abstract and philosophical.

A “Steady-State Economy” Is Possible! (Source: Iwanami Shoten)

It's hard to measure the spread of an idea, but judging from the fact that these books are doing quite well on the Japanese market, the idea of degrowth seems to be gaining traction in Japan.

Explaining the Growth of Degrowth

Just kidding — I’m not going to attempt a full-blown explanation of why degrowth seems to be gaining popularity. I'll punt that to graduate students looking for ideas for their next paper.

But I did have an occasion to put this question to my friends in my book club. "There's a ton of these books on degrowth in Japan. Who do you think is buying these books (aside from us) and what's motivating them?"

Their response? It's probably people who are wary of the state of the Japanese economy over the last few decades, people who are tired of working all day for no particular outcome, who are disillusioned by the country's seeming lack of direction.

Why do they seek out these ideas? They're likely simply looking for alternative ideas, intellectual stimulation, and interesting perspectives, especially from overseas. Just like how people like to try on Western fashion and flock to American movies, the more intellectually oriented consumers try out heterodox ideas like degrowth and modern monetary theory.

What will they do with these ideas? Not much, probably. Look at us — are we on the streets protesting, organizing movements, or writing policy statements to politicians and policymakers advocating for degrowth? Activism is a rare phenomenon in Japan. Once they read these books, they might discuss it with friends, family, and colleagues and get a little smarter. That's all.

I probably hang out with an overly pessimistic crowd. Who knows, maybe some aspects of degrowth will trickle up to a mayor's office somewhere in Japan, triggering a cascading wave of degrowth experiments across the country. The diffusion of ideas is often unpredictable.

Questions for you

To close, I'm curious about what you think.

• Have you come across the idea of degrowth, in Japan or elsewhere? What do you think about it? Convinced? Skeptical?

• Do you have a theory on why degrowth seems to be getting attention in Japan? Or am I getting that wrong in the first place?

• If degrowth is a compelling idea to you, how and where should it start? What's the theory of change?