【國分功一郎】2026年10月20日 オードリー・若林正恭さんとの共著「帳の向こう」

How Kokubun and Wakabayashi Came to Write *Tobari no Mukō* Together

Kokubun Koichiro (國分功一郎), professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, brought with him *Tobari no Mukō* (帳の向こう, Bungeishunju), co-written with Wakabayashi Masayasu (若林正恭) of the comedy duo Audrey (オードリー). The book collects five conversations the two held over four and a half years in the literary magazine *Bungakukai* (文學界). The connection began when an editor proposed the project: Kokubun himself discovered that Wakabayashi had been recommending his books on Instagram—including the notoriously difficult *Chūdōtai no Sekai* (中動態の世界, "The World of the Middle Voice")—and Wakabayashi had independently expressed a wish to speak with him.

Host Otake called it unlike any conversation collection he had read before, crediting Wakabayashi's "honest way of throwing questions"—a willingness to ask "what does this actually mean?" without being pulled along by received wisdom.

Can Philosophy Raise Your Self-Esteem? The Power of Dialogue

One of Wakabayashi's questions: "If someone's self-esteem sits at 20 out of an average of 50, can studying philosophy take it to 70?" Kokubun's answer was an unambiguous no. Raising self-esteem requires dialogue with oneself, which means first knowing oneself. But people with low self-esteem dislike themselves, making inner dialogue painful. The entry point, Kokubun argued, is therefore to start by talking with other people. Through conversations with others, an internal back-and-forth—"maybe this, maybe that"—gradually takes root inside.

When Otake joked that "stupid people have high self-esteem—I was like that when I was young," Kokubun offered a reframe: that isn't stupidity but the absence of a comparison circuit. Someone who doesn't constantly measure themselves against others can simply say "I like this, I'll do this" and act—a genuine source of strength.

The Suffocation of Cost-Performance Culture and Spinoza

Wakabayashi says that every time he returns to Japan from abroad—Cuba among the examples—he feels a particular claustrophobia, and both he and Kokubun trace it to the *cospa* (cost-performance) mentality. In a society where every action must be justified as being "for something," even watching a sunset requires a rationale. Kokubun admitted he catches himself trying to eliminate all "waste," and insisted on the importance of protecting the value of doing things purely for their own sake.

As the book's philosophical anchor, Kokubun named Spinoza—a thinker who, despite his Jewish heritage, broke with the religious establishment and has long been an awkward figure in the history of philosophy precisely because he refused the mainstream. Kokubun said he feels a kinship with that rebellious intellect.

He also quoted the recently deceased American philosopher Fredric Jameson: "It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism." Nobody, Kokubun frankly admitted, has an answer to how the ever-accelerating economy might achieve a soft landing.

Can Democracy Function in an Exhausted Society?

Otake read aloud one of the book's sharpest passages: "When you're exhausted, you can't think and you can't investigate. When everyone is exhausted, the desire emerges for someone to just take charge—an authoritarian impulse." Keeping the masses tired is convenient for those in power, Kokubun observed. He noted that in ancient Greece heavy laborers were customarily excluded from political participation—a discriminatory arrangement, he acknowledged, but one that captures an enduring truth: without breathing room, political participation is impossible.

He also presented international comparisons of election periods. Japan's is just 12 days. France's runs roughly a month; in the United States, campaigning continues almost year-round. A short window favors already-famous candidates and makes it harder for serious debate through language to develop. Kokubun recalled watching the weekly parliamentary broadcasts in Britain during his year there from 2015 to 2016 and finding genuine pleasure in politics conducted through words. On "gamification"—turning political participation into a game—he was skeptical: "It matters that human beings are serious. A game won't do."

The Philosophical Meaning of Growing Old

Kokubun offered a simplified Hegelian schema: child → adult → old person. A child has no opposition between subject and object and is absorbed into the world. An adult develops a subjective self that stands in conflict with the objective world. In old age, that opposition itself dissolves, and one approaches something like the child's original state.

Gilles Deleuze, the philosopher Kokubun studies, reportedly said in his later years: "Apart from the problems of money and health, there is nothing as wonderful as being old." Liberated from so many things, and with the self-respect of having survived—old age carries its own richness. Kokubun set this against the reality of a society that produces vast numbers of isolated elderly people living alone, and concluded: "Building a safety net that removes worry about health and money—that is what politics is for."