Religion, superstition and cult: how religious are Japanese people today?
Nosco, Peter
Apropos the discussion of religion, superstition and cult, I had the privilege of guest-editing a special issue of Japanese Journal of Religious Studies (48:2, 2021) that had its genesis in an offhand query of a sort that many of us have surely received: to whit, a neighbor asked me if Japanese people are religious. My response was a wishy-washy yes and no, reflecting what I had heard after over a half century of asking the same question. This inspired me to ask a number of esteemed colleagues their views on the matter. What emerged was a range of responses that were more accurately summarized under the title “Religion and Identity in Japan since 1940.” The table of contents follows immediately below, and the journal as a whole can be found at https://nirc.nanzanu.ac.jp/journal/6/issue/338%20table%20of%20contents.
Sometimes the simplest questions are the most interesting, and I hope you will find some interesting fodder for your own discussions!
Peter Nosco
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Nosco, Peter
Editor's Introduction: Religion and Identity in Japan since 1940 [217-223]
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Hardacre, Helen
We are Warriors for the Movement: Misogi Training in the Imperial Rule Assistance League [225-243]
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Ketelaar, James E.
Shards from a Wooden Shoe Shop: Religious Experience, Historical Change, and Suzuki Daisetsu [245-266]
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Stone, Jacqueline I.
“We Alone Can Save Japan”: Soka Gakkai’s Wartime Antecedents and Its Postwar Conversion Campaign [267-298]
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Reader, Ian
Constructing Identities through the Shikoku Pilgrimage [299-319]
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Hirota Ryūhei
Traversing the Natural, Supernatural, and Paranormal: Yōkai in Postwar Japan [321-339]
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Okuyama Michiaki
New Religions in Kōshien: Religious Identity and High School Baseball [341-363]
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Yamanaka Hiroshi
Religious Change in Modern Japanese Society: Established Religions and Spirituality [365-382]
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Hamaguchi, Makiko
Epilogue: Japanese Religions and their Contributions to One Woman’s Identity [383-394]