On Prof. Horikawa
Who He IsProfessor Saburo Horikawa is a sociologist. At Department of Sociology, Hosei University, he offers courses in “Environmental Sociology” and “Sociology of Historic Preservation.” He was a Research Associate of sociology at University of Chiba, before joining Hosei. Professor Horikawa’s research interests include historic environment preservation, urban communities, Minamata disease, and the historical development of Japanese environmental sociology. His research focuses on uses and meanings of townscape, and rise of grassroots movements to preserve them.
His most recent book,
Machinami Hozon Undo no Ronri to Kiketsu (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, February 2018 [in Japanese]), is a milestone in the field. Based on his 33 years of intensive fieldwork and through “thick description” of preservationists, it analyses on the relationship between urban environments and society (i.e., “the materiality of society” and “the sociality of material”). The book gives a clear picture of the process how townscape preservation, a social issue, has been individualized and condemned as “a matter of personal taste.” The book has won 3 major academic awards: (1) the Isomura Memorial Prize, from the Japan Association for Urban Sociology; (2) the Ishikawa Prize, from the City Planning Institute of Japan; and (3) the Okui Memorial Prize, from the Japan Society for Urbanology. All three prizes are the highest awards given by their respective associations. It is highly unusual that a sociology book receives such an important recognition from city planning discipline. The English edition of the book,
Why Place Matters, was published in June 2021 by Springer.
He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology from Keio University (Tokyo, Japan) and a B.A.
summa cum laude from Chuo University (Tokyo, Japan).
He has taught at the University of Tokyo (as Visiting Associate Professor, 2001-2003; as Lecturer, 2012-2013), Keio University (1999-2000, 2008-2012; 2017-2020), and University of Chiba (1999). He has also taught at Department of History, Harvard University as an invited lecturer (2004). From April 2021 to December 2023, he was a Visiting Professor at School of Sociology, Nanjing University under the “High-end Foreign Scholar Invitation Program” of Ministry of Science and Technology (People’s Republic of China).
He has given invited talks at the sociology department of State University of New York at Stony Brook (2006), Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in Norwich [England], U.K. (2013), Harvard-Keio Workshop on “ ‘Constitution’ of Postwar Japan” at Keio University in Tokyo (2015), Columbia University in the City of New York (2022), Nanjing University in Nanjing, China (2023), and Le Centre Européen d’Etudes Japonaises d’Alsace (CEEJA) in Colmar, France (2025), among others.
Prof. Horikawa has supervised and co-supervised many Ph.D.s to successful conclusion: his students now teach at universities in Japan and have won five awards from major academic associations in Japan (the Japan Sociological Society, the Japan Association for Urban Sociology, Association of Regional and Community Studies, and Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology). Versions of their theses have been published by Hosei University Press, Shin-Hyôron, and Shin’yô-sha (all in Tokyo) and Kôyô Shobô (in Kyoto). One graduate went on to study in the U.S. graduate school and made
Phi Kappa Phi in 2006.
Since 2013 he is an Associate in Research at Harvard University’s Edwin O. Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, and has made a series of research trips to the U.S. for a book project.
His recent works (all written in Japanese unless otherwise noted) include:
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Why Place Matters: A Sociological Study of the Historic Preservation Movement in Otaru, Japan, 1965-2017 (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2021 [in English])
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Machinami Hozon Undo no Ronri to Kiketsu [
The Logic and the Results of Preservation Movement: A Sociological Study] (Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 2018)
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Nuclear Power Plant Disaster and the Evacuation: A Chronology (co-edited with H. Takehara, S. Morihisa, et al., Tokyo: Suirensha, 2018)
- “The Rise and ‘Institutionalization’ of Japanese Environmental Sociology: A Sketch.”
Journal of Law, Politics and Sociology (Vol. 90, No. 1, 2017)
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A Sociological Study on Historic Preservation Movements in the U.S. and Japan: A Preliminary Study (Tokyo: Dai-ichi Seimei Zaidan, 2015)
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A General World Environmental Chronology (co-edited with H. Funabashi et al., Tokyo: Suirensha, 2014 [in English])
- “Visualizing the Unseen, Voicing the Unheard: The Contributions of Japanese Environmental Sociology in the 'Post-3/11' Era.”
Journal of Environmental Sociology (Vol. 18, 2012)
＞ List of Major Publications
Dr. Horikawa has served in the editorial boards of academic journals such as
Research in Environmental Disruption and
Journal of Environmental Sociology. From April 1st, 2018 to March 31st, 2020, Prof. Horikawa was a Visiting Scholar at Keio University, his
Alma Mater.
Now he is President of the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology, and a member of the Editorial Board,
Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation History, Theory, and Criticism.
EducationPh.D. in sociology, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
M.A. in sociology, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
B.A. in sociology,
summa cum laude, Chuo University, Tokyo, Japan
Awards and Accolades
2023:
The Best Enlightenment/Textbook Award, the Japan Society for Tourism Studies
2019:
Ishikawa Prize, the City Planning Institute of Japan
2019:
Isomura Memorial Prize, the Japan Association for Urban Sociology
2019:
Okui Memorial Prize, the Japan Society for Urbanology
TV/Radio Interviews and Podcasts
2023: “A Conversation with Dr. Horikawa and his Students,” an hour-long special radio program. FM Otaru (JOZZ1AG; 76.3MHz), September 19, 11:00-12:00.
2022: “‘We Couldn’t Preserve the Canal’: A Documentary,” NHK-TV Sapporo (JOIK), December 16, 19:57-20:42.
2022: “Otaru Canal Preservation Movement in Global Perspective: A Conversation with Dr. Horikawa,” an hour-long special radio program. FM Otaru (JOZZ1AG; 76.3MHz), September 28, 14:00-15:00.2022:
“Historic Preservation Podcast #36: Saburo Horikawa on the Preservation Movement in Otaru, Japan.” Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP), Columbia University, New York, NY. June 9.
2020: “Why Preservation Matters in Otaru: A Conversation with Dr. Horikawa,” an hour-long special radio program. FM Otaru (JOZZ1AG-FM; 76.3MHz), September 30, 19:00-20:00.
Professional Experiences
2023-present: President, the Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology
2023-present: Member of the Editorial Board, Future Anterior (edited by GSAPP, Columbia University; published by University of Minnesota Press)
2021-2023: Visiting Professor, School of Sociology, Nanjing University (Nanjing, the People’s Republic of China)
2018-2023: Tresurer and a member of the Executive Council, Research Committee 24 “Environment and Society,” International Sociological Association [RC24-ISA]
2020-2022: Deputy Chair, Department of Sociology, Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan)
2018-2020: Visiting Scholar, Graduate School of Sociology, Keio University (Tokyo, Japan)
2017-2020: Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Graduate School of Human Relations, Keio University (Tokyo, Japan)
2017-2023: Member of the International Relations Committee, Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology
2016-2018: Deputy Director, The Institute for Sustainability Research, Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan)
2015-2017: Member of the Board, Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology
2015-2016: Lecturer, Department of Urban Design and Planning, School of Architecture, Kogakuin University (Tokyo, Japan)
2013-2015: Chair, International Relations Committee, Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology
2013-2014: Visiting Scholar, Graduate School of Sociology, Keio University (Tokyo, Japan)
2013-present: Associate in Research, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.)
2012-2013: Lecturer, Department of Sociology, the University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
2011-2013: Member of the Editorial Board, the Journal of Environmental Sociology, Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology
2010-2012: Vice Chair, Graduate School of Sociology, Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan)
2009-2011: Chair, International Relations Committee, Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology
2007-present: Professor of Sociology, Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan)
2007-2009: Secretary-general, Japanese Association for Environmental Sociology
2005-2006: Affiliate of Senior Common Room, Eliot House, Harvard College (Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.)
2004-2006: Visiting Scholar, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.)
2001-2007: Associate Professor of Sociology, Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan)
2001-2003: Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology, the University of Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan)
1997-2001: Assistant Professor of Sociology, Hosei University (Tokyo, Japan)
1995-1997: Research Associate, Department of Sociology, University of Chiba (Chiba, Japan)
1994-1995: Postdoctoral Research Fellow, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Tokyo, Japan)
