Abstract
This paper challenges the Japanese word mushūkyō as it is used to create a collective, non-religious identity that excludes religious practitioners. Mushūkyō, in addition to functioning as the antithesis of religion, produces the homogeneity Japanese desire for themselves. As Japan becomes increasingly more diverse in thought and ethnic background, it regulates this diversity by teaching young Japanese to subscribe to mushūkyō. This is achieved by controlling the friendships children have at school and by creating an environment that limits religious practice. The conflict between public schools and religion is epitomized by the Roman Catholic Church and the flight of its children. Nearly a decade of quantitative research at a Catholic Church located in the Tokyo suburbs is combined with ethnographic narratives of four Catholics to paint a picture of a Japanese more religiously partisan than previously imagined.
Highlights
My fortieth birthday began with a rough start
Mushūkyō may not be a common topic at schools, but its control of the lives of children has had deep ramifications in teaching alternative values such as those taught at church or at home
Its members predominately come from multicultural backgrounds, but have been raised in Japan and its schools, and speak Japanese fluently. These children were chosen for this research because their stories represent the transition from religionist to mushūkyō that occurs with the ‘help’ of the public education system
Summary
My fortieth birthday began with a rough start. In September, I received a call from my credit card company saying someone had unlawfully used my account. In November, I hit a bicyclist going the wrong way on a one-way street (minor injury), for which I was sent to driving school, where despite having already driven on an international license, I failed three times (Japan is strict!) During this ordeal, I came down with a cold to add to my perennial battle with frostbite (Japan’s floors are cold in winter). From the 1980s to the present, Japan has become home to a rising number of new religious groups from home and abroad that use religion to construct their identity (Mita 2011; Miki and Yoshihide 2012; Miki 2017) Representative of this diversity is the Roman Catholic Church of Japan with multicultural congregations throughout the country (Takahashi et al 2018). These communities are finding mushūkyō to not be the religious tabula rasa Japanese claim it be, but rather an identification used to suppress dialogue and religious dissent
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