Slow Down Kohei Saito

The Deceleration Manifesto

TRANSLATED BY BRIAN

BERGSTROM

In the spirit of big idea books by Naomi Klein and Arundhati Roy, and a runaway bestseller in Japan, Slow Down is a bold and urgent call for a return to Marxism in order to stop climate change.

Why, in our affluent society, are so many people living in poverty, without access to health care, working multiple jobs and still unable to make ends meet, with no good prospects for the future as the planet is burning?

In his international bestseller, Kohei Saito argues that while unfettered capitalism is often blamed for inequality and climate change, calls for “sustainable growth” and a “Green New Deal” are a dangerous compromise. Capitalism creates artificial scarcity by pursuing profit based on the value of products rather than their usefulness and by putting perpetual growth above all else. It is therefore impossible to reverse climate change in a capitalist society—more: the system that caused the problem in the first place can not be an integral part of the solution.

NONFICTION | POLITICAL SCIENCE

HARDCOVER

ISBN: 9781662602368

PUB DATE: January 9, 2024

304pp

Price: $27 US / $36 CAN

Instead, Saito advocates for degrowth and deceleration, which he conceives as the slowing of economic activity through the democratic reform of labor and production. In practical terms, he argues for the end of mass production and mass consumption, decarbonization through shorter working hours, and the prioritization of essential labor (such as caregiving) over corporate profits. By returning to a system of social ownership, he argues, we can restore abundance and focus on those activities that are essential for human life, effectively reversing climate change and saving the planet.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KOHEI SAITO is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo. He received his PhD in philosophy from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin in 2016. He was awarded the 2018 Isaac Deutscher Memorial Prize and the prestigious Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Prize in 2020. Capital in the Anthropocene (which we are calling Slow Down) received “Best Asian Books of the Year” in the Asia Book Awards 2021.

About The Translator

BRIAN BERGSTROM is a lecturer and translator currently based in Montréal after living in Chicago, Kyoto, and Yokohama. His writings and translations have appeared in publications including Granta, Asymptote Aperture, Japan Forum and The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories