Beliefs
According to
OPERATION WORLD, 58% of the Japanese population are Buddhists and
80% adhere to Shinto religion. This adds up to 138%. How? Well,
Japanese can be both Buddhist and Shintoist and there is no conflict
in having two religions.
Japanese may
follow Buddhist or Shinto birth rites, marry in Shinto shrines or
a church, and have a Buddhist funeral when they die. They have no
problem with plurality. Many young people want to marry in a Western
church with Christian-style marriage vows. Wedding chapels are a
flourishing business! Some missionaries use this to reach couples
with the gospel when they ask for a church wedding ceremony.
But, according
to a recent survey, Christians represent only 0.8% of the total
population of 125 million people. Of these approximately 1 million
Christians, 60% are Protestant while 40% are Roman Catholic. Christianity,
in general, is not offensive but personal faith in Christ is not
common.
Freedom of religion
is allowed in the Japanese constitution and the entire nation speaks
one language, but traditional and modern culture combine to form
a tremendous barrier to the gospel. Japan is one of the least evangelized
countries in Asia. Article: "Is Japan the Kingdom of God?"
Japan is coping
with rapid social change and insecurity. Japan prides itself on
peace but shocking events like the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe
and the terrorist attack in a Tokyo subway station have rocked Japanese
security. In a spiritual sense, Japan is a very needy nation.
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Religious
and Philosophical Traditions
 While
the Japanese worldview is willing to accept many views at once,
it is also pragmatic. In problem solving, technique may be less
important than the results. A Japanese who is ill may visit a medical
doctor, get medication from a person trained in the Chinese herbal
tradition, and also visit a local shrine.
A student studying
for university entrance examinations knows admission is impossible
without inordinate hard work, Yet the student will probably visit
a shrine to ask for spiritual help to ensure success.
The roots of
the Japanese worldview trace back to several traditions. Shinto,
the only indigenous religion of Japan provided the base. Confucianism,
from China, added concepts of hierarchy, loyalty, and the emperor
as the "son of heaven". Taoism, also from China, helped give order
to the system of government implied in Shinto. Buddhism brought
contemplative religion and a developed culture of art and temples,
which had a strong role in public life. Christianity brought Western
ideas, particularly those involving social justice and reform.
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Religious
Practices
Most Japanese
take part in rituals and customs from several religious traditions.
Life cycle events are often marked by visits to a Shinto shrine.
Japanese often take their new babies for a formal shrine visit at
about one month. Third, fifth, and seventh birthdays and the official
beginning of adulthood at age twenty also involve special ceremonies.
Shinto priests
perform wedding ceremonies but church weddings are also popular.
The most popular place for a wedding ceremony--chosen by 41 percent--is
a western style wedding hall.
Buddhist priests
most often perform funerals, and Buddhist rites are also common
on death day anniversaries of family members. Some Japanese do not
perform ancestral ceremonies at all, and some do so rather mechanically
and awkwardly. There have also been changes in these practices,
such as more personal and private ceremonies that make them more
meaningful to contemporary participants.
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Shinto
Shinto (Way
of the gods) is the term used to refer to an assortment of beliefs
and practices indigenous to Japan that predate Buddhism but have
been influenced by Buddhism. The Shinto worldview involves a pantheistic
universe of kami, spirits with varying degrees of power.
 Although
each person is expected to continue existence as a kami after death,
Shinto is more concerned with this world than the next. This world
has defiling substances, and Shinto ritual often involves mental
and physical purification for a person who has come into contact
with a pollutant, such as death.
In the fifth
and sixth centuries, Chinese Confucianism and Buddhism began to
influence Shinto. Confucianism brought veneration of ancestors and
Buddhism brought philosophical ideas and religious rites. For more
than a millennium Buddhism overshadowed Shinto but by the beginning
of the 17th century, Shinto emerged from Buddhism's shadow.
The emerging
nationalism of the Meiji Restoration (1868) reformed Shinto into
a state religion, and it flourished until 1945 under government
patronage. Japan's defeat in World War II and the emperor's denial
of his divinity brought an end to State Shinto.
In 1991 there
were nearly 80,000 Shinto shrines and 93,000 clergy in Japan. Today,
though Shinto is not a state religion, local shrines still serve
as focal points for community identity for many Japanese. Occasional
informal or ritual visits are common.
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