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| TOKYO — When Kohei Saito decided to write about “degrowth communism,” his editor was understandably skeptical. Communism is unpopular in Japan. Economic growth is gospel. |
| 东京——当斋藤幸平决定撰文论述“去增长共产主义”时，他的编辑表达了合理的质疑。共产主义在日本不受欢迎。经济增长才是王道。 |
| So a book arguing that Japan should view its current condition of population decline and economic stagnation not as a crisis but as an opportunity for Marxist reinvention, sounded like a tough sell. |
| 因此，一部主张日本不应将当前的人口下降和经济停滞视为危机，而是马克思主义再造良机的作品，听起来就很难卖得动。 |
| But sell it has. Since its release in 2020, Saito’s book “Capital in the Anthropocene” has sold more than 500,000 copies, exceeding his wildest imaginings. Saito, a philosophy professor at the University of Tokyo, appears regularly in Japanese media to discuss his ideas. His book has been translated into several languages, with an English edition to be issued early next year. |
| 但此书大卖特卖。自2020年出版以来，斋藤的著作《人类世资本论》(Capital in the Anthropocene)销量突破50万册，远超他最大胆的想象。作为东京大学哲学教授，斋藤经常接受日本媒体的采访，讨论自己的思想。他这部作品已被翻译成多种语言，英文版将于明年年初发行。 |
| Saito has tapped into what he describes as a growing disillusionment in Japan with capitalism’s ability to solve the problems people see around them, whether caring for the country’s growing older population, stemming rising inequality or mitigating climate change. |
| 斋藤认为日本人对资本主义解决民众身边问题的能力日感幻灭，他（在书中）深入阐释了这一点，这些问题包括对全国越来越多老龄人口的照管，对日益加剧的不平等的遏制，以及对气候变化后果的缓解。 |
| Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, has worked for years to promote economic growth in the shadow of an aging, shrinking population, with a monetary and fiscal policy that is among the most aggressive of any nation. |
| 作为世界第三大经济体，日本多年来一直致力于在人口老龄化和萎缩的阴影下促进经济增长，其货币和财政政策是所有国家中最激进的。 |
| But there are strong indications that the country’s growth-oriented policies of ultracheap money and big government spending are reaching their limits. The interventions have done little to stimulate growth in Japan’s economy. And as government efforts to lift the birthrate also falter, with fewer people doing less work, “the room for growth is running out,” Saito, 36, said during a recent interview at his Tokyo home. |
| 但显而易见的迹象已经表明，日本以增长为导向的超廉价货币政策和大规模政府支出正在接近极限。这样的干预措施对刺激日本经济增长已经收效甚微。现年36岁的斋藤最近在东京家中接受访问时表示，由于政府提高出生率的努力也面临挫败，越来越少的人口所从事的工作也越来越少，“增长空间正在耗尽”。 |
| That’s seemingly true even when Japan’s economy expands. When the country reported growth of 6% in the second quarter of this year, it was driven almost entirely by external factors: exports and inbound tourism. Domestic consumption, on the other hand, shrank. |
| 哪怕在日本经济规模扩张的情况下，这似乎也是事实。日本报告今年第二季度的增长为6%，但这几乎全靠外部因素驱动，也就是出口和入境旅游。而国内消费已经出现萎缩。 |
| The focus on growth was important when Japan was developing. But now that the country is wealthy, Saito said, the insistence on an endlessly expanding economy, described in terms of gross domestic product, has produced obviously wasteful spending as the government has urged people to consume more. |
| 在日本的繁荣发展期，对增长的关注非常重要。但斋藤认为，现今日本已是富裕国家，坚持以国内生产总值为标尺来无限扩张经济，政府敦促民众增加消费，导致了明显的浪费性支出。 |
| Some areas of the economy, such as health care, will need to continue growing, but “there are too many cars, too many skyscrapers, too many convenience stores, too much fast fashion,” he said. The focus on consumption, he argues, has had devastating consequences for the environment, driven widening inequality and wasted limited resources that could be put to better use. |
| 医疗保健等一些经济领域需要继续增长，但“汽车太多，摩天大楼太多，便利店太多，快时尚太多”，他说。他认为，把重点放在消费上对环境造成了毁灭性的后果，加剧了不平等，并浪费了本可以更好利用的有限资源。 |
| Reorienting Japan toward goals that more effectively reflect the country’s current needs, he says, would mean using metrics other than GDP to gauge the country’s economic well-being. The focus would shift from quantity to quality, on measures like health, education and standard of living. |
| 他表示，将日本重新转向更有效地反映该国当前需求的目标，意味着使用GDP以外的指标来衡量该国的经济健康状况。将从关注数量转向关注质量，如健康、教育和生活水平等指标。 |
| Saito first encountered Marx in 2005, when he was an undergraduate at the University of Tokyo. In high school, Saito was “more right wing,” he said, convinced that individual failings were the root cause of Japan’s problems. When he encountered the German philosopher’s arguments that structural causes led to inequality and war, it was “shocking,” he said. |
| 斋藤第一次接触马克思是在2005年，当时他还是东京大学的一名本科生。他说，在高中时自己“更偏右”，他坚信个人的失败是日本问题的根源。他说，当他接触到这位德国哲学家关于结构性原因导致不平等和战争的论点时，他“感到震惊”。 |
| “After the economic crisis of 2008, there was a Marx renaissance in Japan, and I was convinced of the importance of his theory,” Saito said. |
| “2008年经济危机之后，日本有过一段马克思主义复兴，我深信他的理论的重要性，”斋藤说。 |
| He has spent the years since studying Marx’s twilight years, when, Saito argues, the philosopher realized that capitalism, with its insatiable demand for growth, would inevitably lead to environmental disaster. |
| 他花了很多年时间研究马克思的晚年，斋藤认为，当时这位哲学家意识到，资本主义及其对增长的永不满足的需求将不可避免地导致环境灾难。 |
| Saito conceived “Capital in the Anthropocene” — a reference to an era in which human activity has a profound impact on the Earth’s environment — early in the COVID pandemic. Socialism was a hot topic in Europe and the United States, where politicians like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., urged Americans to grapple with the drawbacks of U.S.-style capitalism. The aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, rising inequality and the unavoidable realities of climate change were driving many young people to question the sustainability and fairness of existing economic systems. |
| 斋藤在新冠疫情大流行初期构想了“人类世之都”，人类世指的是人类活动对地球环境产生深远影响的时代。社会主义是欧洲和美国的热门话题，佛蒙特州无党派参议员伯尼·桑德斯等政治家敦促美国人将必须面对美国式资本主义的弊端。2008年金融危机的余波、日益加剧的不平等以及不可避免的气候变化现实促使许多年轻人质疑现有经济体系的可持续性和公平性。 |
| People in Japan, too, felt dissatisfied with the status quo, Saito said. But unlike people in other parts of the world, “they aren’t thinking, ‘Capitalism is bad,’ they’re thinking, ‘I’m bad.’ They aren’t thinking that capitalism needs to change, they’re thinking, ‘I need to change.’ ” |
| 斋藤说，日本人民也对现状感到不满。但与世界其他地区的人们不同的是，“他们并没有想‘资本主义不好’，而是想‘我不好’。他们并没有认为资本主义需要改变，他们想的是，‘我需要改变’”。 |
| Saito’s critics have called him out for castigating the capitalist system he has benefited from while providing little more than unworkable idealism and failed ideology as an alternative. His book has ignited a publishing boomlet on Marxism in Japan, with some works attacking his ideas and others supporting them. |
| 斋藤的批评者指责他，称他从资本主义制度中受益，却转而批评资本主义，同时只给出了行不通的理想主义和失败的意识形态作为替代方案。他的书在日本掀起了马克思主义书籍的出版热潮，一些作品攻击他的观点，另一些则支持他的观点。 |
| The renewed discussion hasn’t done much to revive the prospects of Japan’s Communist Party, however. Saito is not a fan of the group, which he sees as well-meaning but stale. He also does not have much patience for other more familiar strains of communism, such as that practiced by the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party, with their emphasis on state power over industry and centralized planning. |
| 然而，重新开始的讨论并没有给日本共产党的前景带来太大帮助。斋藤并不是该组织的粉丝，他认为该组织的初衷是善意的，但已经过时。他对其他更为人所知的共产主义分支也没有太多耐心，例如苏联和中国共产党所实行的强调国家权力对工业和集中计划的做法。 |
| He recognizes that growth remains crucial for improving quality of life in less developed countries. And even in rich nations, he does not call for people to give up their creature comforts. He recently moved into a three-story home in an upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of Tokyo and drives a compact Toyota. One of the few things he has given up, he said, is fast food. |
| 他认识到增长对于改善欠发达国家的生活质量仍然至关重要。即使在富裕国家，他也不呼吁人们放弃物质享受。他最近搬进了东京郊区一个高档社区的一栋三层住宅，开着一辆紧凑型丰田汽车。他说，他放弃的为数不多的事情之一就是快餐。 |
| Achieving degrowth communism, he believes, is less about personal choices and more about changing overarching political and economic structures. Marxism, he argues, offers a viable model for reorienting society around the maximization of public goods as opposed to the endless pursuit and concentration of wealth. |
| 他认为，实现去增长的共产主义不在于个人选择，而在于改变总体政治和经济结构。他认为，马克思主义提供了一种可行的模式，可以围绕公共物品的最大化利用来重新定位社会，而不是无休止地追求财富，将财富集中在少数人手里。 |
| That would require, among other things, moving away from GDP as the key measure of a country’s health. As an alternative, he suggests the “human development index,” an idea proposed by Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, which the United Nations has used as an alternative indicator of a country’s progress. |
| 这需要放弃一些事情，包括将国内生产总值作为衡量一个国家健康状况的关键指标。作为替代方案，他建议采用“人类发展指数”，这是巴基斯坦经济学家马哈布·哈克提出的想法，联合国已将其用作衡量一个国家进步的替代指标。 |
| The index — which measures life expectancy, education and quality of life — gives a more comprehensive view of how the economy affects people’s lives than GDP. |
| 该指数衡量预期寿命、教育程度和生活质量，比国内生产总值更全面地了解经济如何影响人们的生活。 |
| Saito is not clear exactly what shape a world under degrowth communism would take, but he insists that it would be democratic and focused on expanding communal resources, reducing the wealth gap and removing incentives for excess consumption. |
| 斋藤并不清楚共产主义去增长下的世界会是什么样子，但他坚称它将是民主的，并专注于扩大公共资源、缩小贫富差距并消除对过度消费的激励。 |
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