is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

critic and curator, whose interests include contemporary arts, the history of social thought, and

economic philosophy An economic ideology is a set of views forming the basis of an ideology on how the economy should run. It differentiates itself from economic theory in being normative rather than just explanatory in its approach, whereas the aim of economic the ...

. He is currently the Dean of the Graduate School at the

Kyoto University of Art and Design , official abbreviated name is . It is a for-profit private university in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan. The predecessors are the Kyoto Academy of Costume Arts, which was founded in 1934, and the Kyoto Academy of Art and Design, which was esta ...

. Until March 2008, he served as an associate professor of economics at the Institute of Economic Research at

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

(KIER). Asada is widely recognized as the author of the bestselling book, "構造と力─記号論を超えて (''Structure and Power: Beyond Semiotics'')", which was published in 1983. He holds a position as a member of the supervisory committee at

NTT InterCommunication Center NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC) is a media art gallery in Tokyo Opera City Tower in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Jap ...

, and was a co-editor of a Japanese quarterly journal Hihyōkūkan (''Critical Space'') with Kojin Karatani until 2002. It has been noted that it was popular in late 1980s Japan to have words ending with "... phenomenon", an example being the use of the expression "Akira Asada phenomenon", which took the name of Asada as he was a central figure in the "new academism" that was a much-discussed topic at the time.Library News Vol. 16 No. 4 p. 2

Bibliography

In Japanese * 構造と力─記号論を超えて 'Structure and Power—Beyond Semiotics'' Keisō Shobō, 1983 * 逃走論 'A Theory of Escape'' Chikuma Shobō, 1984 * ヘルメスの音楽 'The Music of Hermes'' Chikuma Shobō, 1985 * 「歴史の終わり」を超えて 'Beyond "The End of History"'' Chūōkōron Shinsha, 1999 * 映画の世紀末 'The End of Cinema's Century'' Shinchōsha, 2000

Notes

External links

Critical Space Akira Asada Archives Kyoto University Institute of Economic Research Kyoto University of Art and Design
Japanese curators Postmodernists Kyoto University alumni 1957 births Writers from Kobe Living people {{postmodernism-stub