This is Philosophy Bites with me Nigel Warburton.

And me, David Edmund.

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What is Japanese philosophy?

Takashi Moisato is a leading scholar brought up in Japan but now teaching at the University of Edinburgh.

He explains that there are several distinct strands within Japanese philosophy, Shintoism,

from China, Confucianism and Taoism, and of course, Buddhism.

Takeshi Morisatu, welcome to philosophy bites.

Thank you so much for having me. So the topic we're going to talk about today is Japanese philosophy, which is a huge subject.

And honestly, I know almost nothing about it, though I feel that's a gap.

I really want to know more about it.

So can we just begin with the deep history of Japanese

philosophies, a long history, but obviously there are key schools within Japanese philosophy

that have continued to permeate the present?

That's a really good question. So the best way to really understand the history of Japanese

philosophy is to think about the main traditions really understand the history of Japanese philosophy is to think about

the main traditions that constitute the history of Japan.

One is native Shinto tradition, which didn't have any writing system in its own.

It was monomonic tradition, oral tradition.

And then you have Confucianism coming from the Chinese continent with technology of building cities and political system

and ethical values.

...