This week (June 30th) on The Open Door we discuss reparations in the United States, specifically at the local level, and (yes!) living in Japan. Our special guest, Jason Morgan, PhD (Japanese history), studies legal and political history and philosophy. He recently penned an intriguing essay on reparations for Public Discourse, and he is a frequent contributor to the New Oxford Review and other journals of opinion. Morgan’s most recent books are Law and Society in Imperial Japan (Cambria, 2020) and Information Regimes in Cold War East Asia (Routledge, 2020). We’ll be discussing the following questions.

1. Dr. Morgan (Jason, if we may), could you please tell us a bit about your background and, especially, how you came to live in Japan?

2. You recently contributed an essay to Public Discourse on reparations for racial injustice in the US. Living in Japan, what led you to address this issue?

3. Is injustice ever private?

4. What is the distinction between commutative and distributive justice?

5. Can reparations at the national level be effective?

6. How has Evanston, Illinois, set out to make local reparations? How has Georgetown University attempted to do so?

7. Could you explain the concept of political subsidiarity? Is it akin to federalism?

8. Does the Constitution require that justice be individualized?

9. In what ways does everyday life in Japan differ from everyday life in the United States?

10. How fares the Catholic Church in today’s Japan?