Latin America as a Spiritual Homeland

This paper explores how the Japanese sociologist Mita Munesuke (1937–2022) engaged with Western modernity in a critical way through transcultural interaction and a recon­figuration of temporality. Mita developed an epistemological framework that conceptu­alized non-modern, communal understandings of modernity, drawing on his experiences with indigenous cultures. Instead of dismissing these perspectives as outdated, Mita po­sitioned them as alternative ontologies to the linear, progress-oriented temporality preva­lent in industrial societies. The study posits that Mita’s 1974–1975 stay in Mexico, during which he served as a visiting professor at El Colegio de México, significantly influenced his subsequent scholarly work and the creation of his alter ego and pen name, Maki Yūsuke. Focusing on Kiryū no naru oto: Kōkyō suru komyūn (The Sound of Airflows: A Symphony of Communities, 1977) and Jikan no hikaku shakaigaku (A Comparative Soci­ology of Time, 1981), both of which were published under the pseudonym Maki Yūsuke, this analysis demonstrates how Mita employed a new narrative voice and creative socio­logical arguments to position Mexican, indigenous, and Japanese experiences as sites of resistance to the linear conception of time in Western modernity. Particular attention is given to Mita’s designation of Latin America as his “second spiritual homeland”. These insights are contextualized within Japan’s post-1968 disillusionment era, which was char­acterized by a critique of scientific rationality and developmentalist ideologies. The paper concludes that Mita’s project aimed to reconceptualize modern subjectivity and social organization by fostering a deeper engagement with indigenous worldviews and spiritual practices. Additionally, it proposes further studying the resonances and shared themes Japanese scholars and writers saw in Latin American cultures, as these represent new avenues for researching the connections between the two regions.