11. Discursive Formations Surrounding ‘Religious Freedom’ in Modern Japan: Religion, Shintō, the Emperor Institution

Abstract

For Japanese the concept of religion is something dual, with layered implications, including both Western meanings and non-Western connotations. Like the Western concept of religion too, Japanese religion is a metaphor, empty of any essential contents, which becomes articulated only in the contingent, discursive formations which comes to surround the concept. The reception of the concept of religion in modern Japan is not only a matter of religion as a private realm observed in the interiority of individuals. Other problems now also come into range: how did the emperor institution, which took Shinto as its support, manage such a dislocation of the Protestant concept of religion? As a result what kind of changes did Japanese society make? This is perhaps the key to understanding Japanese modern society, which has arrived at a concept of religion which both diverges from and appropriates that of the modern West. Keywords:emperor institution; Japan; modern West; religion; Shintō