Building Emotional Resilience: Japanese Women’s Religious and Spiritual Coping Strategies in the Time of COVID-19

Paola Cavaliere

doi:10.3390/rel12090723

Abstract

This paper explores the moderating effect of religious and spiritual coping mechanisms on the COVID-19 pandemic-induced emotional distress among a group of Japanese women practising temple meditation and yoga. A growing body of literature identifies religion and spirituality as sources of coping mechanisms for emotional distress during the pandemic, in that they enable individuals to find ways to improve subjective well-being and quality of life. The study uses a descriptive phenomenological approach, drawing upon narratives collected between September 2020 and June 2021 from thirty-two respondents composed of a mix of religious-affiliated and self-identified non-religious women practising temple meditation and yoga. Findings indicate that more women, including religious affiliates, have favoured spiritual coping mechanisms in the forms of meditation and body–mind practices to build emotional resilience. This reflects a quest for greater subjective well-being to compensate for the increased burden of emotional care during the pandemic. Overall, while organised religions have come to appropriate more holistic forms of spirituality to respond to demands of emotional care, body–mind spiritual practices have become more appealing for younger religious and non-religious Japanese women alike, in that they downplay gender-conforming ideas of the care economy with its emphasis on dedication and dependency.

Highlights

In direct comparison, the COVID-19-related number of deaths and infected cases in Japan has been far lower than figures seen in other developed countries (WHO2021)
As of March 2021, the number of consultations for domestic violence had almost doubled as compared to the previous year (Cabinet Office of Japan 2021b), while the alarming phenomenon of young carers—junior and high school students who look after younger siblings or provide nursing care for elderly family members (MUFJ 2021)—seems to partly explain the doubled suicide rate among school-age girls over the past year (Cabinet Office of Japan 2021a, p. 22)
Participants were asked to reflect on and share their thoughts on the open questions related to the role of religion and spirituality as coping mechanisms and sources of self-care outlined in the methodological section

Summary

Introduction

The COVID-19-related number of deaths and infected cases in Japan has been far lower than figures seen in other developed countries (WHO2021). Suicide rates among Japanese men, on the other hand, have continued the downward tendency of the past decade The negative effect of COVID-19 on Japanese women has already been attributed to two factors: the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on sectors that tend to employ more women in non-regular jobs, such as welfare and health care services, tourism, hospitality, and entertainment A year into the pandemic, increasing socio-economic insecurity has intensified Japanese women’s precarious status in employment, heightened unpaid workload, and undermined the living conditions of women across lower and middle social classes, a situation often exacerbated by their responsibility for caring for families. The current domestic arrangements find their roots in the “housewifisation process” (Ochiai 2013, p. 536) in the decades since the end of

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Conclusion