Religion in Japan
Religion in Japan is manifested primarily in Shinto and in Buddhism, the two main faiths, which Japanese people often practice simultaneously. Syncretic combinations of both, known generally as, are common; they represented Japan's dominant religion before the rise of State Shinto in the 19th century.
The Japanese concept of religion differs significantly from that of Western culture. Spirituality and worship are highly eclectic; rites and practices, often associated with well-being and worldly benefits, are of primary concern, while doctrines and beliefs garner minor attention. Religious affiliation is an alien notion. Although the vast majority of Japanese citizens follow Shinto, only some 3% identify as Shinto in surveys, because the term is understood to imply membership of organized Shinto sects. Some identify as "without religion", yet this does not signify rejection or apathy towards faith. The is a specified identity, which is used mostly to affirm regular, "normal" religiosity while rejecting affiliation with distinct movements perceived as foreign or extreme.
Main religions
Shinto
Shinto, also, is the indigenous religion of Japan and of most of the people of Japan. George Williams classifies Shinto as an action-centered religion; it focuses on ritual practices to be carried out diligently in order to establish a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient roots. The written historical records of the and first recorded and codified Shinto practices in the 8th century. Still, these earliest Japanese writings do not refer to a unified "Shinto religion", but rather to a collection of native beliefs and of mythology.Shinto in the 21st century is the religion of public shrines devoted to the worship of a multitude of gods, suited to purposes such as war memorials and harvest festivals, and applies as well to various sectarian organizations. Practitioners express their diverse beliefs through a standard language and practice, adopting a similar style in dress and ritual dating from around the time of the Nara and Heian periods.
The Japanese adopted the word Shinto, originally as Shindo, from the written Chinese , combining two kanji:, meaning "spirit" or ; and, meaning a philosophical path or study. The oldest recorded usage of the word dates from the second half of the 6th century. are defined in English as "spirits", "essences" or "gods", referring to the energy generating the phenomena.
Since the Japanese language does not distinguish between singular and plural, refers to the divinity, or sacred essence, that manifests in multiple forms: rocks, trees, rivers, animals, places, and even people can be said to possess the nature of. and people are not separate; they exist within the same world and share its interrelated complexity.
Shinto is the largest religion in Japan, practiced by nearly 80% of the population, yet only a small percentage of these identify themselves as "Shintoists" in surveys. This is due to the fact that "Shinto" has different meanings in Japan: most of the Japanese attend Shinto shrines and beseech kami without belonging to Shinto organisations. Since there are no formal rituals to become a member of folk "Shinto", "Shinto membership" is often estimated by counting those who join organised Shinto sects. Shinto has 100,000 shrines and 78,890 priests in Japan.
Shinto sects
Profound changes occurred in Japanese society in the 20th century, especially after World War II, including rapid industrialisation and urbanisation. Traditional religions, challenged by the transformation, underwent a reshaping themselves, and principles of religious freedom articulated by the 1947 constitution provided space for the proliferation of new religious movements.New sects of Shinto, as well as movements claiming a thoroughly independent status, and also new forms of Buddhist lay societies, provided ways of aggregation for people uprooted from traditional families and village institutions. While traditional Shinto has a residential and hereditary basis, and a person participates in the worship activities devoted to the local tutelary deity or ancestor – occasionally asking for specific healing or blessing services or participating in pilgrimages – in the new religions individuals formed groups without regard to kinship or territorial origins, and such groups required a voluntary decision to join. These new religions also provided cohesion through a unified doctrine and practice shared by the nationwide community.
The officially recognized new religions number in the hundreds, and total membership reportedly numbers in the tens of millions. The largest new religion, Soka Gakkai, a Buddhist sect founded in 1930, gathers around 4 million members. Scholars in Japan have estimated that between 10% and 20% of the population belongs to the new religions, although more realistic estimates put the number at well below the 10% mark. In 2007, there were 223,831 priests and leaders of the new religions in Japan, three times the number of traditional Shinto priests.
Many of these new religions derive from Shinto, retain the fundamental characters of Shinto, and often identify themselves as forms of Shinto. These include Tenrikyo, Konkokyo, Omotokyo, Shinrikyo, Shinreikyo, Sekai Shindokyo, Zenrinkyo and others.
Buddhism
first arrived in Japan in the 6th century, introduced in the year 538 or 552 from the kingdom of Baekje in Korea. The Baekje king sent the Japanese emperor a picture of the Buddha and some sutras. After overcoming brief yet violent oppositions by conservative forces, it was accepted by the Japanese court in 587. The Yamato state ruled over clans centered around the worship of ancestral nature deities. It was a period of intense immigration from Korea, horse riders from northeast Asia, and cultural influence from China, which had been unified under the Sui dynasty becoming the crucial power on the mainland.Buddhism functioned to affirm the state's power and mold its position in the broader culture of East Asia. Japanese aristocrats set about building Buddhist temples in the capital at Nara. However, the government's vast investment in spreading Buddhism during the Nara period led to corruption, and led to a reformation period and a shift in focus from Nara to the new capital of Heian, now Kyoto.The six Buddhist sects initially established in Nara are today together known as "Nara Buddhism" and are relatively small. When the capital moved to Heian, more forms of Buddhism arrived from China, including the still-popular Shingon Buddhism, an esoteric form of Buddhism similar to Tibet's Vajrayana Buddhism, and Tendai, a monastic conservative form known better by its Chinese name, Tiantai.
When the shogunate took power in the 12th century and the administrative capital moved to Kamakura, more forms of Buddhism arrived. The most culturally influential was Zen, which focused on meditation and attaining enlightenment in this life. Two schools of Zen were established, Rinzai and Sōtō. A third, Ōbaku, formed in 1661.
With the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and its accompanying centralisation of imperial power and modernisation of the state, Shinto was made the state religion. An order of elimination of mutual influence of Shinto and Buddhism was also enacted, followed by a movement to thoroughly eradicate Buddhism from Japan.
Today, the most popular school in Japan is Pure Land Buddhism, which arrived in the form of independent schools in the Kamakura period, although elements of it were practiced in Japan for centuries beforehand. It emphasizes the role of Amitabha Buddha and promises that reciting the phrase will result in being taken by Amitabha upon death to the "Western Paradise" or "Pure Land", where Buddhahood is more easily attained. Pure Land attracted members from all of the different classes, from farmers and merchants to noblemen and samurai clans, such as the Tokugawa clan.
There are two primary branches of Pure Land Buddhism today:, which focuses on repeating the phrase many times as taught by Honen, and, which claims that only saying the phrase once with a pure heart is necessary, as taught by Shinran. Two smaller schools of Pure Land Buddhism exist, Ji-shu and Yuzu Nembutsu, although these are significantly smaller than their larger counterparts.
Another prevalent form of Buddhism is Nichiren Buddhism, which was established by the 13th century monk Nichiren who underlined the importance of the Lotus Sutra. The main representatives of Nichiren Buddhism include sects such as and, and lay organisations like and —a denomination whose political wing forms the, Japan's third largest political party. Common to most lineages of Nichiren Buddhism is the chanting of and the inscribed by Nichiren.
, there were 355,000+ Buddhist monks, priests and leaders in Japan, an increase of over 40,000 compared to 2000.
Japanese new religions
Others are independent new religions, including Aum Shinrikyo, Mahikari movements, the Church of Perfect Liberty, Seicho-No-Ie, the Church of World Messianity, and others.Abrahamic religions
Christianity
In 2019, there were 1.9 million Christians in Japan, most of them living in the western part of Japan, where missionaries' activities were greatest during the 16th century.Christianity, in the form of Catholicism, was introduced into Japan by Jesuit missions starting in 1549. In that year, the three Jesuits Francis Xavier, Cosme de Torres and Juan Fernández, landed in Kagoshima, in Kyushu, on 15 August. Portuguese traders were active in Kagoshima since 1543, welcomed by local daimyōs because they imported gunpowder. Anjirō, a Japanese convert, helped the Jesuits understanding of Japanese culture, and translated the first Japanese catechism.
These missionaries were successful in converting large numbers of people in Kyushu, including peasants, former Buddhist monks, and members of the warrior class. In 1559, a mission to the capital, Kyoto, was started. By the following year there were nine churches, and the Christian community grew steadily in the 1560s. In 1569, there were 30,000 Christians and 40 churches. Following the conversion of some lords in Kyushu, mass baptisms of the local populations occurred. In the 1570s, the number of Christians rose rapidly to 100,000.
Near the end of the 16th century, Franciscan missionaries arrived in Kyoto, despite a ban issued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In 1597, Hideyoshi proclaimed a more serious edict and executed 26 Franciscans in Nagasaki as a warning. Tokugawa Ieyasu and his successors enforced the prohibition of Christianity with several further edicts, especially after the Shimabara Rebellion in the 1630s. Many Christians continued to practice in secret.
The discourses on Christianity became the property of the state during the Tokugawa period. The state leveraged its power over to declare Christians enemies of the state, in order to create and maintain a legally enforceable identity for Japanese subjects. As such, Christian identities or icons became the exclusive property of the Japanese state. Although often discussed as a "foreign" or "minority" religion, Christianity has played a key sociopolitical role in the lives of Japanese subjects and citizens for hundreds of years.
In 1873, following the Meiji Restoration, the ban was rescinded, freedom of religion was promulgated, and Protestant missionaries began to proselytise in Japan, intensifying their activities after World War II, yet they were never as successful as in Korea.
In 1996, Nagasaki Prefecture had the highest percentage of Christians, at about 5.1%. As of 2007 there were 32,036 Christian priests and pastors in Japan. According to a poll conducted by the Gallup Organization in 2006, Christianity had increased significantly in Japan, particularly among youth, and a high number of teens were becoming Christians.
Throughout the latest century, some Western customs originally related to Christianity, including Western style weddings, Valentine's Day and Christmas have become popular among many Japanese. In 2015, 60–70% of weddings performed in Japan were Christian-style. Christianity and Christian culture has a generally positive image in Japan.