Comparative Analysis of Church-State Relations in Poland and Japan

Abstract

The problem of religious beliefs and their communities has been a very controversial topic throughout human history. In modern states, most governments adopted the Western idea of separating the churches and the governments. Under the development of globalization, the Eastern states, like the states in East Asia, also followed this trend. This thesis compares and contrasts the church-politic relationship of Poland and Japan to show the similarities and differences between the Western and Eastern countries on the separation of the Churches and States. The thesis compares this topic from the angles of churches and the governments attitudes toward each other and the churches in the judiciary of these two states. It ends up with the idea that Poland states their secular position in the world but still has a close relationship between the Catholic Church and the government. Even though the Japanese government has a vague relationship between the Shinto and Buddhist communities, it still strictly performs the separation of churches and states in public. The research may provide a view for Western scholars and government to encourage them to put down the idea of Orientalism and get experiences from the Eastern World about the religion topic.