Rate My Professor Seiji Kumagai

Seiji Kumagai is Professor and Vice Director at the Kyoto University Institute for the Future of Human Society. He earned a B.A. in 2004, an M.A. in 2006, and a Ph.D. in 2009, all from Kyoto University Graduate School of Letters in Buddhology. His early career included a JSPS Post-doctoral Research Fellowship at the Institute for Research in Humanities from 2009 to 2011, followed by an assistant professorship at the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research from 2011 to 2012. He then served as Program-Specific Associate Professor at the Kokoro Research Center from 2012 to 2013 and as Senior Lecturer at Kyoto Women’s University in 2013. From 2013 to 2020 he was Uehiro Associate Professor at the Kokoro Research Center, advancing to Associate Professor there from 2020 to 2022. He became Associate Professor at the Institute for the Future of Human Society in 2022 and Professor in 2023, also serving as its Vice Director from 2025. Additional appointments include Numata Professor at the University of Vienna in 2018 and various divisional directorships.

Kumagai’s research focuses on Buddhist Madhyamaka philosophy in India, Tibet, and Bhutan, as well as Bon religion, with emphasis on theories of emptiness and the two truths. He has authored books including The Two Truths in Bon (2011), Bhutanese Buddhism and Its Culture (2014), and Buddhism, Culture and Society in Bhutan (2018), along with numerous peer-reviewed articles on Indo-Himalayan Buddhism and Bon. He integrates traditional wisdom with technology, developing AI applications such as BuddhaBot and concepts like Tera-verse. As Program Director of Japan’s Moonshot R&D Goal 9 since 2021, he advances “kokoro-tech” for mental well-being. He has delivered invited lectures and contributed to editorial and committee roles in Buddhist studies and related fields.