Abstract
This paper begins by examining so-called “spirituality movements and/or culture” in Japanese society today. It then focuses on research into spirituality as it relates to Japanese education, and specifically moral education, where, for example, our connectedness to the sublime and lofty is one of the four themes of the new moral education classes introduced into Japanese elementary schools in 2018. It is far from easy, however, to teach such a subject, since Japanese moral education is required to keep its distance from popular spirituality as well as from the institutionalized spirituality of organized religions. Furthermore, the conventional knowledge that underpins modern Japanese moral education struggles to deal with spirituality and the vast range of human existence, including our search for the purpose and significance of life. Accordingly, this paper will examine current work on such issues and attempt to outline the future role that scientific and academic approaches to religion and spirituality might play in moral education in Japan, especially from the viewpoint of human connectedness to nature and the sublime.
Highlights
This paper begins by examining so-called “spirituality movements and/or culture” in Japanese society today
Since 2000, as noted above, Japan’s mass media have quite frequently used “supirichuaru”, the katakana version of “spiritual,” in the contexts of self-exploration, mental and physical health, beauty cosmetics, improving one’s fortune and so on (Hirano 2007, pp. 69–70). This expansion of popularized spirituality movements may be understood more clearly if we consider them in relation to the secularization and individualization of Japanese consumers in the present age
Shimazono has collectively termed these movements “spirituality movements and/or culture” (Shimazono 2011, p. 27), arguing that they all involve practical and learning activities aimed at transforming the self in its spiritual dimension through connectedness with something sacred
Summary
From as early as the 1960s in some areas and the 1970s in others, Western countries as well as. Kumiko Nishi of the NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute has pointed out the following interesting distinctions: many young people believe in “something religious,” such as “spirit” and “the other world or heaven”, despite not believing in any religion; elderly people, on the other hand, have religious faith and worship their family altars, but do not believe in “something religious” so much; while those who have religious faith do not necessarily believe in “something religious.” Nishi concludes from this that Japanese people, frequently said to be atheists, cherish a sensibility leading to something religious and spiritual in the broad meaning of the words, and that a considerable number of them believe in invisible powers and feel they can rely on them, even though they do not believe in any particular religion If the present Japanese educational system wishes to progress in the direction of holistic education, schools should try harder to offer appropriate knowledge, based on academic and educational research, about “glocal” religiosity and spirituality, and so prevent pupils and students from being deluded by cultish religions and thin spirituality in the tawdry consumer market of the present age
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