CONTEMPORARY JAPAN: RELIGIONS Comparative Influence of Religion |
| 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 :: Many people believe that one of the characteristics of the modern world is the decreasing influence of religion. If we look at the industrialized nations today, we find that, with one great exception, they are very much alike in their rates of religious participation, membership in religious organizations, and so on. Japan is very much like the nations of Western Europe. The great exception in world-wide terms is the United States, where levels of expressed religious belief, the level of religious influence in politics, and so on, is in fact much greater than we see elsewhere in the world. Japan is much more like the nations of Western Europe and other industrialized societies in the area of religion than it is like the United States. |
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