In practical terms, Saito's conception of degrowth involves the end of mass production and mass consumption, decarbonization through shorter working hours, and the prioritization of essential labor such as caregiving. Instead, Saito advocates for degrowth, which he conceives as the slowing of economic activity through the democratic reform of labor and production. He is particularly critical of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), describing them as 'the new opium of the masses' in regards to what he believes is the impossibility for the goals to be achieved under a capitalist system. Saito argues that while sustainable growth has become a central organizing principle in global responses to climate change, the expectation of perpetual growth has only exacerbated the climate crisis.

From this foundation, Saito mounts an argument for degrowth based on Marx's conclusions. In these writings, Marx argued that capitalism had created an 'irreparable rift in the interdependent process of social metabolism' and examined self-governing agricultural communes that existed in pre-capitalist societies. Ĭapital in the Anthropocene draws from Marx's unpublished notebooks on ecological research written late in his life, particularly his writing on natural science and the metabolic rift. These events prompted him to consider why 'in such an affluent society, there are so many people living in poverty, without access to medical care, and unable to make ends meet,' and that despite living in an outwardly convenient and prosperous society, 'many people feel that there are no good prospects for the future'. He writes on ecology and political economy from a Marxist perspective, attributing the financial crisis of 2007–2008, the climate crisis, and the Fukushima nuclear disaster as influencing his orientation towards a Marxist interpretation of politics.

Kohei Saito is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Tokyo. An English translation was published in 2023, Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism. Capital in the Anthropocene was an unexpected commercial success in Japan, selling over half a million copies. Drawing from writings on ecology and natural science by Karl Marx, the book presents a Marxist argument for degrowth as a means of mitigating climate change. Capital in the Anthropocene ( Japanese: 人新世の「資本論」, romanized: Hitoshinsei no 'Shihonron') is a 2020 non-fiction book by Japanese academic Kohei Saito.

Marx kapital