was a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 social philosopher and critic.

Biography

Fukuda was the pseudonym of , born on 6 April 1917. He studied philosophy at Hosei University

Hosei University

is a private university based in Tokyo, Japan.The university originated in a school of law, Tōkyō Hōgakusha , established in 1880, and the following year renamed Tōkyō Hōgakkō . This was from 1883 headed by Dr. Gustave Emile Boissonade, and was heavily influenced by the French legal tradition...

 (Tokyo), graduating in 1940. In 1944 he was sent to Halmahera

Halmahera

Halmahera is the largest island in the Maluku Islands. It is part of the North Maluku province of Indonesia.Halmahera has a land area of 17,780 km² and a population in 1995 of 162,728...

; he returned to Japan in 1946. Two years later he started teaching philosophy at his old university, where he would stay until 1970. Thereafter he supported himself by his writing.

Fukuda — the name he used as a teacher as well as a writer — was a prolific author: a hyōronka (critic or pundit) and popularizer of philosophy. He died on 11 December 2002.

Sources

• Gendai Nihon shippitsusha daijiten / Contemporary writers in Japan. 5 vols. Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 1979.
• Hyōronka jinmei-jiten / Japanese critics and commentators: A biographical dictionary. Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 1990. ISBN 4-8169-1002-6
• 20-seiki Nihon jinmei-jiten / Major 20th-century people in Japan: A biographical dictionary. 2 vols. Tokyo: Nichigai Associates, 2004. ISBN 4-8169-1853-1