Research finds that Japanese people are disinterested with religion
Interest in religion is steadily decreasing among the younger Japanese generation, according to a survey conducted by Pew Research Center. A lack of education and mistrust towards religious organizations are some factors that are attributed to more people not following a faith.
The main religion in Japan is Shinto, a spirituality based on nature-worship and mythology of deities in supernatural form. With no sacred texts or well-known deity, Japanese youth feel no desire to devote themselves to an ideological faith. Buddhism is the second largest faith but requires a deep understanding of Buddha’s philosophical teachings in order to be a true follower.
“In my opinion, parents don’t tell their children directly about religion, so I don’t have a care,” Seinan Gakuin University student Mizuki Amano said. “If parents talk about religion to their children then they will probably take an interest, but since mine don’t, I don’t care.”
As the indigenous school of thought for Japanese people, Shinto customs and traditions have become deeply rooted in Japanese culture. Family is the main mechanism for which Shinto traditions are preserved such as the family grave and wedding ceremonies.
“For many people who get married, sometimes the religion is a problem,” Amano said. “If the religions are different between the families there might be a conflict.”
A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2017 measured how religion is perceived in Japan, regardless of faith or denomination. Despite a population of 127.1 million people, the total membership of religious groups was 188.9 million in 2015. According to the director of Japanese General Social Surveys Noriko Iwai, this information can be interpreted as Japanese people typically following more than one religion.
“If Christians have separate churches [denominations], Japanese don’t care about sects, it’s all just one religion to us,” Amano said.
The biggest tradition for Japanese people is the New Year’s festival called “shogatsu.” Modern Japanese people follow a combination of Shinto and Buddhism, which means they visit both the Shinto shrine and Buddhist temple.
“We visit the temple on December 31 but on the next day [January 1] we go to the shrine,” Amano said. “I don’t really care about that, it’s just our custom to visit the temple and shrine.”
The New Year’s tradition lasts for three straight days in which Japanese people visit the shrine or temple and pray for good fortune.
“If we visit three shrines on New Year’s, we will have good fortune and happiness in the new year,” Seinan Gakuin University student Hinako Ando said. “It’s called hatsumode, so naturally we do that to wish good luck for ourselves.”
According to the Pew Research Center, about 67.5% of the Japanese population consider religious organizations the least trustworthy among 15 other organizations which include politicians and corporations. Religious organizations are the typical medium for Japanese people to become educated on a Buddhist sect, however, because of scandals in recent years they have been cast into a negative light.
For the millennial generation, stories about Buddhists escaping persecution and cult scandals are enough to lose interest in wanting to learn about religion.
“We are young, so we don’t have our own ideas about religion,” Amano said. “Many people think religion as a little scary, so they don’t want to look too deeply into it.”
With social media becoming a growing trend among millennials, the purpose of visiting shrines and temples has changed.
“When I visit Kyoto, I’ll go to the shrines and temples that are there and take pictures to post on Instagram,” Ando said. “It’s become more of a sightseeing trip than something important.”
Other minority religions are also starting to gain more traction in Japan. Christianity has been steadily growing in membership, according to Iwai. Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka is a Christian private university. Although religious affiliation is irrelevant to most students, religion courses are offered for people wanting to pursue careers in theology.
“Religion courses at Seinan have two paths, one is for people who want to work in a church or for people who just want to learn about religion but will work in a normal job,” Amano said. “In our first year, we are forced to learn about Christianity, but actually we are not interested in it.”
“We don’t think about God in our daily life, it’s hard to understand [about Christianity],” Ando said.
After the end of World War II, the previous state religion of Shinto nationalism was disestablished and Japan became more secular in terms of ruling and education. In public school, religion is not taught to young students thus the lack of education also contributes to the feeling of disconnect among young Japanese people.
“In junior high school, the Christian students don’t go to the school festivals, but two or three times in a week, every morning the students pray together in a big hall,” Ando said.
Concerns amongst the older generation worry that Japanese traditions and customs associated with religion will not continue as time passes. But according to the Pew Research Center, a majority of people still prefer following old family traditions rather than starting anew.
“Since everyone does it, we follow the crowd and society,” Amano said. “Probably after we die, the only connection we will have is our bones buried at the temples and shrines.”
References
http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2017/11/20105733/Religion20171117.pdf
