Emilie Letouzey investigates relations to plants, conceptions of life and living things in contemporary Japan. After completing a PhD thesis about traditional horticulture in the Ōsaka metropolitan area, she explores the technical aspect of plant manipulations in ritual or industrial contexts, approaching plant life in Japan as a “gray area” of life. She is currently a Fyssen Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Anthropology of Ōsaka University.