a short bio of Makoto Usami at the Tokyo Tech, Japan

Makoto Usami
Professor of Law and Philosophy

Subject Areas for Supervising Written Work

Representative Publications in English

Biographical Note

Makoto Usami is Professor of Law and Philosophy in the Department of Social Engineering, Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. He has taught or lectured at several leading professional and graduate schools in Japan, such as the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Nagoya University Law School, Keio Law School, the Graduate School of Economics and the Graduate School of Political Science at Waseda University, Doshisha Law School, and the Graduate School of Policy and Management at Doshisha University. He was formerly Professor of Jurisprudence at Chukyo University (2002–2004) and a visiting scholar at Harvard University (1997–1999). Prof. Usami was educated at Nagoya University (M.A. in Law, highest honors in law, 1991; B.A. in Law, highest honors in law, 1989), and received his LL.D. degree at the same university in 1996. He serves as Vice President of the Public Policy Studies Association, Japan (PPSAJ), the Chair of the Awards Selection Committee in the PPSAJ, a member of the Executive Council of the Japan Law and Economics Association (JLEA), the Vice Editor-in-Chief of Law and Economics Review, a member of the Council of the Japan Association of Legal Philosophy (JALP), a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, Japan Division (IVRJ), and a member of the Editorial Board of Philosophy Study, among others.

The legal philosopher by training, Prof. Usami has published extensively on global justice, intergenerational justice, and transitional justice in recent years. He has also, for many years, worked on jurisprudential and philosophical issues regarding the methodologies and observations of the areas of law and economics, policy analysis, social choice theory, and positive political theory. He has made presentations at numerous international and domestic conferences, symposia, and workshops, including the annual or biennial meetings of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR), the Association for Legal and Social Philosophy in the U.K., the Philosophy Research Unit of the Athens Institute for Education and Research in Greece, the JALP, the Japan Public Law Association, the Japanese Political Science Association, and the PPSAJ. His recent publications in Japanese include Justice, Liberty, and Equality: Selected Lectures (2011), Ronald Dworkin (co-editor, 2011) and Law and Economics: Exploring the Foundations and Frontiers (editor, 2010). He is currently completing a book on global justice and intergenerational justice.

The abstracts and full texts of Prof. Usami’s some works are available at PhilPapers and Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Some information on his publications and paper presentations can be found at Tokyo Tech Research Depository (T2R2) .

Subject Areas for Supervising Written Work

Philosophy of law
Political philosophy
Normative study of law and policy

Representative Publications in English

“Intergenerational Justice: Rights versus Fairness,” Philosophy Study, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 237–246 (2011). [Abstract]

“Law as Public Policy: Combining Justice with Interest,” in Tadeusz Biernat and Marek Zirk-Sadowski (eds.), Politics of Law and Legal Policy: Between Modern and Post-Modern Jurisprudence (Warsaw: Wolters Kluwer Polska, 2008), pp. 292–315. [Abstract]

“Global Justice: Redistribution, Reparation, and Reformation,” Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, Beiheft 109, pp. 162–169 (2007). [Abstract]

“Retroactive Justice: Trials for Human Rights Violations under a Prior Regime,” in Burton M. Leiser and Tom D. Campbell (eds.), Human Rights in Philosophy and Practice (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2001), pp. 423–442. [Abstract]

Discussion Papers

“Intergenerational Justice: The Rights of Future People or the Duty of Fair Play,” Discussion Paper, No. 2011–05, Department of Social Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2011. [Full text]

“The Non-Identity Problem, Collective Rights, and the Threshold Conception of Harm,” Discussion Paper, No. 2011–04, Department of Social Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2011. [Full text]

“Law as Policy: Justice and Interest,” Discussion Paper, No. 08–09, Department of Social Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2008. [Full text] (Turkish translation, 2012.)

“Government, Civil Society, and Posterity,” Discussion Paper No. 07–12, Department of Social Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2007. [Full text]

“World Poverty and Justice beyond Borders,” Discussion Paper No. 05–04, Department of Social Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2005. [Full text]

Contact Information

Secretary
Ms. Fumika Sugita
Phone & fax: +81–3–5734–3318
Office: Ookayama West Bldg 9, #531

Email: usami[at]soc.titech.ac.jp (Replace “[at]” with “@”.)
Phone & fax: +81–3–5734–2933
Office: Ookayama West Bldg 9, #530
Office hours in Spring Term: Thursday, 4:40 to 5:40 p.m.

Mailing address:
Professor Makoto Usami
Department of Social Engineering
Graduate School of Decision Science and Technology
Tokyo Institute of Technology
2–12–1 Ookayama, #W9–90
Meguro, Tokyo 152–8552
Japan