+ About the Speakers

RELATED TOPIC:
URBAN & RURAL LIFE

RELATED TOPIC:
THE JAPANESE FAMILY

RELATED TOPIC:
EDUCATION & WORK

RELATED TOPIC:
JAPANESE SOCIETY

RELATED TOPIC:
POPULAR CULTURE

 
CONTEMPORARY JAPAN:
RELIGIONS

Old vs. New Religions
In addition to the traditional religions of Shinto and Buddhism, Japan is also home to more than 600 “new religions” (shinko shukyo), which incorporate Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian elements. In this video series, Harvard University professors Theodore Bestor and Helen Hardacre discuss the impact of religious values and traditions on Japanese life.

Helen Hardacre :: New religious movements represent the most vital sector of Japanese religions today. By contrast, temple Buddhism and shrine Shinto have been in decline since the end of the World War II. While the membership in Japanese new religions has been rising since 1945, the ties between the people and their temples and traditional shrines are tending to weaken since 1945.

Theodore Bestor :: If you think about the social context of Japanese religion, in some senses Buddhism is about the family and about the ancestors, and Shinto is about the community. Shinto shrines are organized around a geographical place, around a community. And so, people in their religious lives may be celebrating different aspects of their social world in different religious settings. Now because Shinto has a complicated history ideologically, it means that the link between the community and Shinto can also be controversial.

So, for example, many new religions which are very popular in urban areas are at best antagonistic, in some cases hostile, to Shinto. So, people who live in a community but are hostile to Shinto may find themselves outside of many community institutions that feed back into the Shinto shrine at the heart of the traditional community.

Similarly, people who, for political reasons, see Shinto as extremely conservative or linked to the pre-war and wartime governmental political military structure, may be reluctant to participate in community events if they think that by doing that they would be endorsing Shinto in this sort of old-fashioned ideological sense.