Religion In Japan Research Articles

The Abe Assassination and Japan’s Nexus of Religion and Politics

The shocking murder of Japan’s former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe by a gunman motivated by anger at the politician’s ties to the controversial Unification Church sparked a massive outcry that amplified long-standing anxieties about religion in Japan. This article surveys reasons for persistent tensions between a Japanese public that tends to reject self-identifying as religious and the influence of religion-affiliated organizations on Japanese politics. It also identifies Abe’s assassination in July 2022 and local-level elections in April 2023 as potential beginning and end points of the latest moral panic about religion in Japan’s public sphere.

Fear and the construction of minority religions in Japan

ABSTRACT This contribution uses examples from ‘new religions’ (shinshūkyō) to discuss how minority religions have been constructed in Japan, highlighting in particular the centrality of fear in the creation and perpetuation of minority status. Groups labelled as new religions have, since the late nineteenth century, provided the blueprint for defining what is considered ‘mainstream’ or ‘proper’ religion, often associated with supposedly ‘traditional’ religions seen as part of Japan’s culture and heritage, and ‘marginal’ or ‘outsider’ religions or religious practices that do not fit the definition of tradition in a given time and are viewed with suspicion, and, at times, controlled or suppressed. This contribution discusses how such marginalisation intersects with empowerment dynamics in the creation and perception of minority status among religious groups in Japan. Fear, I argue, is not only central to how minoritised religious groups are perceived by the external world but has also worked on interactions and relations between religious organisations and society in the other direction, from group members towards the external world. Paying attention to how groups navigate and respond to marginalisation, whether by hiding or eschewing their marginal status or by embracing it as a means of empowerment, is therefore crucial to understanding the dynamics of minoritisation.

Ethnohistory of the creation of a new religion in multicultural Japan

Japan as a multicultural and polyreligious society is illuminated in this article by reference to the creation of Ijun, which is both a revival of Ryukyuan culture and a new religion of Japan. The similarity between Ijun and Seichō no Ie can be understood by reference to ethnohistoric context, to international activity, and to flows of information, religious ideology and capital. The philosophy, histories of the founders, ritual and Japanese vocabulary are compared in order to show differences and similarities that reflect two cultural contexts, Ryukyuan and Japanese. The personal history of Ijun’s founder adds strength to the conclusion that Ijun is similar to Seichō no Ie, despite differences attributed to Ryukyuan influence on Ijun. Takayasu’s creation of an international organization makes Ijun into a center that replicates and reverses the center-periphery relation between Japan and Okinawa, while also modeling Seichō no Ie’s international organization.

Review: Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan, by Jolyon Baraka Thomas

Jolyon Baraka Thomas calls into question the very idea of religious freedom in his study of definitions and applications of the concept of religious freedom in both the United States and Japan. He begins in the mid-nineteenth century—when Japan reopened to the world and was exposed to the rhetoric of “religion”—and continues through the Allied Occupation of Japan after World War II and beyond. Faking Liberties is clearly in conversation with books like Jason Josephson Storm’s The Invention of Religion in Japan (2012) and Trent Maxey’s The ‘Greatest Problem’: Religion and State Formation in Meiji Japan (2014), but Thomas goes further to explore the impact that definitions have on the communities being defined. He argues that in the same way that religion itself is a contested category, which out of necessity delineates “appropriate” religions through defining which are “inappropriate,” religious freedom can only be identified through deciding who gets what kind of freedoms, and who is denied those freedoms.One of the most compelling and useful features of Faking Liberties is the careful chapter design, allowing for a variety of readings and uses for the text. Thomas has separated his book into two sections—Japan prior to and then during/after occupation, presented chronologically. Each section contains four chapters that parallel one another, focusing on four key themes: the relationship between secularism and religious freedom and tolerance; how different groups attempt to negotiate and influence what religious freedom means; the schism between universal definitions of religious freedom and the actual particulars of how it is applied in the real world; and the role the academic field of religious studies plays in defining who “deserves” religious freedom or not. Thus, Thomas presents a variety of potential reading strategies. As an instructor, I am already thinking about how different pairings of chapters could work as readings for different thematic units in the classroom.Most impressively, Thomas maintains accessibility throughout the book. His prose is powerful and at times very personal, making it a genuinely compelling read. The book’s epilogue is gut-wrenching, meant with all due respect and admiration, and would serve well in any class discussing issues of race, positionality, and privilege. Though focusing on the context of modern Japan, Faking Liberties will be indispensable for a wide range of scholars touching upon intersections of religion and the law, religion and politics, processes of racialization and othering, and new religious movements. It also addresses international affairs and the modern history of both Japan and the United States. Perhaps most useful is the the self-reflective examination of the field of religious studies itself. The innovative parallel chapter format also allows for a wide range of uses in the classroom, customized to the topic or unit being taught, making it a great book for use with students as well.Faking Liberties is a valuable and thought-provoking deconstruction of the concepts of religion and religious freedom, set in the interactions between Japan and the United States across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is easily applicable to the field of religious studies more broadly, however. I believe that Thomas’s powerful and user-friendly writing, meticulous attention to detail, and illustration of the wide-ranging implications of the interconnections among religion, politics, and academia will see Faking Liberties become required reading for students and scholars of Japan, of religious studies, of new religious movements, and of world history alike.

Applying Religious Studies Discourse during Wartime: On Katō Totsudō’s Discussion of Religious War

This paper argues how the study of religion in Japan influenced the nation’s conduct during the Asia-Pacific War (1931–1945). Specifically, the paper addresses the wartime national indoctrination texts of Katō Totsudō 加藤咄堂 (a.k.a. Katō Yūichirō 加藤熊一郎, 1870–1949). Although Katō was not strictly a religious scholar, analyzing Katō’s texts is significant in understanding the influence of religious theory and religious studies discourse on Japanese society during the war. To illustrate this point, this paper introduces previous studies that have discussed the movements of religious scholars during the war. It then clarifies the significance of discussing Katō’s texts, followed by an introduction to what has been revealed about Katō so far. The paper then examines Katō’s wartime texts that discuss the relationship between war, faith and the readiness to die. The East–West comparison of views of life and death used by Katō was characterized as a wartime application of comparative religion. It was intended to emphasize Japan’s superiority over other countries. Such features agitated Japanese readers to proactively enter the fight to the death through spiritual mobilization in a total war system.

Critical Visual Religion Approach: When Ethnographic Filmmaking Blends with the Critical Approach to Religion, a Japanese Case Study

This article draws on the research and practice developed during my doctorate and fieldwork in Japan. In this work, I consider the implication of using the critical religion approach and the visual ethnographic methodology for critically investigating what is commonly labelled as religion and its representation as observed in Japan with particular reference to my fieldwork in Tohoku. I begin by reviewing the concept of religion in Japan, in particular the character of the idea and the use of the critical religion approach. I continue with an analysis of ethnographic filmmaking, focusing on cases that inspired my visual ethnographic filmic approach. I discuss how the two methods informed each other, creating a visual ethnographic technique founded on the critical religion approach as well as sensory, participatory and creative ethnographic filmmaking methods I developed and applied to my documentary, Tohoku Monogatari—A Story from the Northeast of Japan. With this article, I contend the necessity of a critical approach to the representation of religions which could be achieved with what I named the critical visual religion approach.

“Cutting Up a Chicken with a Cow-Cleaver”—Confucianism as a Religion in Japan’s Courts of Law

This paper explores the Naha Confucius Temple case, resolved by the Supreme Court in February 2021, in light of postwar decisions on Articles 20 and 89 of the Japanese constitution. Religion is a contested category in Japanese legislation, appearing both in the constitution and in laws regulating the freedoms and restrictions of legally registered religious organizations. While the organization behind the Confucius Temple in Naha was registered as a general corporate juridical person, the majority opinion sided with the plaintiffs’ argument that the free lease granted to the temple by the municipality of Naha constituted a violence of the ban on public sponsorship of religious institutions and activities. In order to reach their decision, the Supreme Court and the lower courts not only had to decide on whether Confucianism was a religion or not, but also on whether the organization behind the temple—a group dedicated to the history and memory of the Chinese immigrant community in Naha—should in fact be considered a religious organization. The outcome of the case is a good example of religion-making in courts of law, with a central institution of power employing notions of sui generis religion to regulate and define civil actors.

The Soka Gakkai Practice of Buppō and the Discourse on Religion in Japan

This paper investigates the Japanese Nichiren Buddhist organization, Soka Gakkai (SG), whose members have supported the political party known as Kōmeitō, or Clean Government Party, in Japan for over half a century. SG members have often been criticized as ‘impure’ political actors, undergoing frequent public questioning of their motivations for engaging in electoral politics in light of their ‘religious’ status. The paper shows how the SG members’ support for Kōmeitō at a qualitative level indeed transcends the typical demarcations of the ‘secular-religious’ binary system. However, they also simultaneously challenge the term ‘religion’ that has functioned as an ideology in the creation of statecraft and in their competition for legitimacy. The current paper is based on long-term fieldwork, extensive interviews, and doctrinal analyses that highlight how socially productive this discourse on religion has been. It also shows how a counter-episteme, rooted in Nichiren’s theory of the Risshō Ankoku Ron and the idea of kōsen-rufu, sought to bring a ‘Buddha’ consciousness to bear on individual and collective action as a model for alternative ‘politics’. Contrary to many claims, this did not entail contesting the modern institutional separation of ‘church’ and ‘state’, but is rather an attempt to find legitimacy for participating in ‘Japan-making’ in ways that cannot easily be understood or confined to explanations framed within the ‘religious-secular’ binary system.

Origins of the Universe in Shintoism: An Ancient Religion of Japan

Origins of the Universe in Shintoism: An Ancient Religion of Japan

Beyond Disenchantment

Beyond Disenchantment

Sankyoku Magazine and the Invention of the Shakuhachi as Religious Instrument in Early 20th-Century Japan

The early 20th century was a period in which understandings of music, religion, and the nation-state underwent rapid change in Japan. In this article I examine Japanese cultural discourse from the first decades of the 20th century in which the shakuhachi, a Japanese bamboo flute, was frequently portrayed as a religious instrument. In some cases, this discourse referenced pre-20th century historical affiliations of the shakuhachi with the Fuke-sect, an organization that was loosely affiliated to Rinzai Zen Buddhism. But the article also explores how religio-musical discourse surrounding the shakuhachi intersected with developments in modern Japanese religious life, as well as pre-WWII developments in the political life of Japan and Asia. Drawing primarily on articles from Sankyoku, one of the most important music magazines in early 20th century Japan, I show how public discourse contained in the media and other forms of writing is an important way to understand the rapid developments taking place in music and religion in Japan at this time.

Is stronger religious faith associated with a greater willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine? Evidence from Israel and Japan.

Achieving high vaccination rates is important for overcoming an epidemic. This study investigates the association between religious faith and intentions to become vaccinated against COVID-19 in Israel and Japan. Most of Israel’s population is monotheistic, whereas most Japanese are unaffiliated with any religion. Therefore, our findings might be applicable to various countries that differ in their religions and levels of religiosity. We conducted almost identical large-scale surveys four times in Israel and five times in Japan from March to June 2020 to obtain panel data. We found that intentions of getting vaccinated depend on people’s level of religiosity in a non-linear way. Those who have strong religious beliefs are less likely to become vaccinated than those who say they are less religious. Two other factors that play a role in this relationship are religious denomination in Israel and identifying with a religion in Japan.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10198-021-01389-8.

SUGGESTIVNESS OF THE “OFUDESAKI” TEXT: INTENTION OR FORTUITOUSNESS?

The article goal is to single out and describe verbal means of suggestive influence on the recipient of “Ofudesaki” text a translation erbatim from Japanese: “At the tip of the brush”), which is the main script of the Tenrikyo religion, one of the “oldest” among the many newest syncretic religions in Japan, founded by a simple peasant Nakayama Miki (1797-1887) in 1838. The text “Ofudesaki”, written by the founder of this religion “from the words of God the Father” in 1869-1881, consists of 17 chapters and 1711 tanka poems, which vividly reflect the Japanese language of the second half of the 19th century. This makes it possible to consider “Ofudesaki” as a valuable source of spoken and literary language of this historical era, as well as the then Kansai dialect, because, despite the poetic form, this work is saturated with colloquial vocabulary and dialectal expressions. Thus, the subject of research is the graphic, phonetic, lexical and syntactic features of “Ofudesaki” text, which reflect not only the idiolect of the author of this sacred work, but also give good reason to make assumptions about the intentional pastiche of this text by Nakayama Miki at almost all language levels. The methods of semantic, grammatical, etymological analysis, as well as historical and descriptive ones are used in the work. One of the main results and substantiated by specific examples study findings is the hypothesis put forward by the author of the article that the convergence of Japanese spoken language with literary language was bidirectional. Not only the language of fiction actively influenced the normative base of the national language through the education system, but also the spoken element had a significant impact on the then Japanese language, “eroding” the limits defined by the literary tradition: changing the pronunciation of words, lexical composition, grammar rules, stylistic norms, and so on.

Minority religions in Japan: marginalised or empowered?

Minority religions in Japan: marginalised or empowered?

초고령 다사사회 일본에 있어 종교의 새로운 지평 - ‘임상종교사’를 중심으로 -

초고령 다사사회 일본에 있어 종교의 새로운 지평 - ‘임상종교사’를 중심으로 -

Resonance as a Constraining Factor in the Glocalization of Religion

In this paper I approach the phenomenon of resonance in the glocalization of religion from a pragmatist perspective with the aim to contribute to the understanding of these still largely overlooked dynamics. Building on my theory on the global repositioning of religion through insights and suggestions coming from sociology (notably the work of Terence McDonnell and his colleagues) and other disciplines such as anthropology and semiotics, I contend that cultural objects circulating in the global cultural network can become relevant to religious actors and trigger a resonance because they are useful to solve specific religious problems. With reference to the greening of religion in Japan and some aspects of Japanese religions’ activities in South Africa and Cuba, I suggest that the solution to such problems, which starts from the realization of some congruences between global ideas/practices and locally shared religious categories, requires both cognitive work and emotional conditions. Moreover, I illustrate how this process implies changes in the structure of a given religious system, takes different shapes for different religious actors, and intertwines significantly with power issues.

Is Japan Religious?

The popular image of Japan and religion presents something of a paradox. On the one hand, large cross-cultural surveys frequently present Japan as a country of non-believers, where only 10–15% of the population selfidentify as religious and the vast majority rank religion as being of little importance to their lives. Yet, any visitor to Japan is likely to be struck by the sheer number of Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples that dot the landscape, and the diverse array of festivals (matsuri) that are performed at these sites. In this article, we argue that the apparent paradox is actually an illusion generated by the unwarranted ethnocentric assumption that religion everywhere must resemble the features of the Abrahamic faiths that are predominant in Western societies. To make our case we first review recurrent theoretical and definitional debates concerning religion and examine how they relate to the Japanese context. Second, we explore patterns in contemporary data from an online survey of N = 1,000 Japanese that asked about religious beliefs and practices. We illustrate through the results obtained that to understand religion in Japan it is necessary to move beyond theocentric approaches and expectations that religious belief must be tied to religious identities or exclusive membership in a given tradition. To conclude, we argue that the patterns observed in Japan demonstrate that scholars who wish to explore religion cross-culturally need to take greater account of orthopraxic cultural contexts and distinguish between ‘theocentric’ doctrinal beliefs and broader supernatural beliefs.

CHÍNH SÁCH CỦA MẠC PHỦ TOKUGAWA ĐỐI VỚI PHẬT GIÁO VÀ NHỮNG TÁC ĐỘNG CỦA NÓ

In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu established the Tokugawa Shogunate, ushering in a long period of Japanese peace. In order to maintain social stability, the Tokugawa Shogunate has issued a series of policies in the fields of politics, economy, culture, and society. For Buddhism, the bakufu forced families to register for permanent religious activities at a local temple; required the sects to make a list of monasteries in their sects; banned the construction of new monasteries; encouraged the learning and researching discipline of monasteries throughout the country. These policies have had a multifaceted impact on the bakufu government, as well as Buddhism. For Buddhism, the policies of the Tokugawa shogunate marked a period of restoration but tightly controlled by this religion in Japan. The privileges that Buddhism possesses have given great power to Buddhist temples to Japanese people from peasants to samurai. This was also a period of witness to the academic revival of the Japanese Buddhist sects. For the bakufu government, Buddhism was tightly controlled by the government, becoming an effective tool to fight against Christianity as well as managing and controlling the inhabitants, and strengthening the feudal social order.

Confucian Modernity in Japan Religion and the State

Confucian Modernity in Japan Religion and the State

Alma M. Karlin's Visits to Temples and Shrines in Japan

Alma Maximiliana Karlin (1889 - 1950), born in Celje, went on a journey around the world between 1919 and 1928, and stayed in Japan for a little more than a year, from June 1922 to July 1923. There is a large collection of postcards which she used and brought back to Slovenia, presently archived in the Regional Museum of Celje. Among them there is quite a number of postcards from Japan (528 pieces), and those of temples and shrines, including tombs of emperors and other historical persons, amount to 100. Alma almost always wrote on the reverse of these postcards some lines of explanation about each picture in German. On the other hand, the Japanese part of her travelogue is very short, only about 40 pages of 700 pages in two volumes. (Einsame Weltreise / Im Banne der Südsee). In order to understand Alma Karlin’s observation and interpretation of things related to religions in Japan and beliefs of Japanese people, we depend on her memos on the picture postcards and her rather subjective pieces of impressions in her travelogue. This paper presents facts on the religious sights which Alma visited, and analysis of Alma’s understanding and interpretation of the Japanese religious life.