Problems of ‘Religion’ in Japan: Part 2

Abstract

AbstractThis article problematizes the utilisation of the category ‘religion’ as an analytical concept in the Japanese context. For some decades, in Religious Studies, the idea of religion has been interrogated and the ideological function of the category ‘religion’ has become a subject of critical investigation. This kind of critical approach to ‘religion’ has been applied to many different contexts including Japan. Although there has been a significant development in the critical study of ‘religion’ in Japan, this article argues that the discourse of sui generis religion is still dominant in the academic subject area currently called ‘Japanese religion(s)’. This article critically examines the category of religion in recent works of scholars who claim to study ‘Japanese religion(s)’ and suggests abandoning the term as a category of analysis. This will help scholars to re‐imagine what they use to call ‘religion’, by enabling them to see what the idea of ‘religion’ formerly prevent them from seeing.