Mr. Antonio Negri was to visit Japan from March 20 to April 4, 2008, and would have spent time on a residency engaged in various cultural and intellectual dialogues including a lecture at I-House, which runs the I-House Ushiba Fellowship.The program invites to Japan distinguished contemporary thinkers and intellectuals for the purpose of bringing humankind closer together and transcending the North-South / East-West divides through the enhancement of international understanding and mutual trust. It was made possible by the endowment subsequent to the dissolution of the Ushiba Memorial Foundation, established to promote international cooperation for the realization of harmonious relations between the developed world and the underdeveloped world. In addition to this, the I-House Ushiba Fellowship aims at encouraging cross-cultural dialogue which critically examines various problematics of the 21st century, in particular those issues that arise from the problems left unresolved ("negative legacy") from the last century, and suggesting a creative vision for human development from an alternative perspective.

However, after consultations with International House the Foreign Ministry of japan advised that negri should apply for a visa as he may not be allowed to enter the country without one, even though Italian nationals do not require visas for short visits. As result of further consultations with Negri and IH it was decided that Negri should not travel to Japan due to the obstacles put in his way by the Foreign Ministry, which would have delayed his tour and set back carefully made preparations on the part of IH. Negri was planning to give lectures on labor and other issues at Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo in addition to IH.

Antonio Negri

Born in Padua, Italy, 1933. Starting off his academic career as a scholar of political philosophy centering on Marx, Mr.Negri shaped the theoretical foundation for a new social movement known as “Autonomia” supported by the socially disadvantaged. The movement jolted all parts of Italy. When it was in a stage of further development, however, he was accused of masterminding the kidnapping and murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro by the militant organization “the Red Brigades” and plotting to overthrow the government. Shortly afterward, although no link was established between Negri and the Red Brigades, he was convicted for his political activities and critical discourse against the government. During his imprisonment awaiting trial, he announced his candidacy for and was elected to the Italian legislature. Owing to parliamentary privilege, he was permitted to leave prison, but this was abrogated a few months later. Before being arrested, he sought for political asylum in Paris. During his exile in Paris, he became acquainted with such French intellectuals as Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, was engaged in global intellectual movements and prolific political writings, and developed a new theory of human emancipation in a rapidly globalized world. Later, he voluntarily returned to Italy to serve his remaining sentences and was released from prison in 2003 after serving his full sentence of 17 years.

As an eminent scholar, he has held teaching positions at the University of Padua, the Ecole Normale Supérieure, the Universities de Paris Ⅶ,Ⅷ, and College International de Philosophy. In the widely acclaimed works of “Empire” and “Multitude” under his co-authorship with Michael Hart, Negri grasped the new political global order, which emerged with the acceleration of “Globalization,” as “Empire,” and reconfigured it as de-centralized network system of domination, which differs from a sovereignty of traditional “nation-states” presupposing physical territory and which accepts no boundaries or limits. In so doing, Negri conceptualized “Multitude” as the democratic forces and alternative paradigm to resist against a new imperial order and the power of “Empire.”

His major publications include Political Descartes: Reason, Ideology and the Bourgeois Project (New York: Verso, 2007), Multitude: War and Democracy in the Age of Empire (co-authored with Michael Hardt, New York: Penguin Press, 2004), Time for Revolution (New York: Continuum, 2003), Empire (co-authored with Michael Hardt, Harvard University Press, 2000), The Savage Anomaly: The Power of Spinoza's Metaphysics and Politics (University of Minnesota Press, 1991), Marx Beyond Marx: Lessons on the Grundrisse (New York: Autonomedia, 1991) and The Politics of Subversion: A Manifesto for the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1989).

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