Outside Japan, he is best known as a social scientist, often mentioned in reference to sociological and philosophical research on otaku culture and popular Japanese animation series such as Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.
[citation needed] Osawa is known for proposing a form of body theory that is concerned with how our life-world is constructed, particularly the process that yields norm and meaning.
[5] In his view, the interaction of the bodies produces the transcendental agency that defines what is valid and invalid or appropriate and inappropriate.
[7] The former described a decline of totality in contemporary society[8] while the latter, which was equated with virtuality, was an era when reality was relativized.
[7] Osawa has contributed to the most influential Japanese postmodern journal Critical Space (批評空間, Hihyōkūkan), edited by Kojin Karatani and Akira Asada.