Japan's Culture

In Japan freedom of religion is guaranteed to all under the Constitution, Article 20 of which states that "No religious organization shall receive any privileges from the State, nor exercise any political authority. No person shall be compelled to take part in any religious act, celebration, rite or practice. The State and its organs shall refrain from religious education or any other religious activity."

The predominant religion in Japan today is Buddhism, which had a following of 90 million as of the end of 1994. Christianity is also active; there were about 1.5 million Christians in Japan as of the end of 1994. Among the other religions, it is estimated that there are more than 100,000 Muslims, including non-Japanese temporarily residing in the country.

Buddhist priests lead a procession of worshippers

(Zojoji Temple)

The gate and groundsof a Shinto shrine.

Japan's indigenous religion is Shinto, which has its roots in the animistic beliefs of the ancient Japanese. Shinto developed into a community religion with local shrines for household and local guardian gods. People deified heroes and outstanding leaders of their community for generations and worshipped the souls of their family ancestors.

Eventually the myth of the Imperial Family's divine origin became one of the basic tenets of Shinto, and early in the nineteenth century a patriotic Shinto movement gained ground. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, and especially during World War II, Shinto was promoted by the authorities as a state religion. Under the postwar Constitution, however, Shinto no longer receives any official encouragement or privileges, though it still plays an important ceremonial role in many aspects of Japanese life. Shinto exists side by side with and sometimes overlaps in the popular mind with Buddhism. Many Japanese today go through Shinto rites when they marry and Buddhist funeral rites when they die.

Buddhism was introduced to Japan from India via China and Korea around the middle of the sixth century (officially in A.D. 538). After gaining imperial patronage, Buddhism was propagated by the authorities throughout the country. In the early ninth century Buddhism in Japan entered a new era in which it catered mainly to the court nobility. In the Kamakura period (1192-1338), an age of great political unrest and social confusion, there emerged many new sects of Buddhism offering hope of salvation to warriors and peasants alike. Buddhism not only flourished as a religion but also did much to enrich the country's arts and learning.

During the Edo period (1603-1868), when the shogunate's cast-iron rule led to relative peace and prosperity and to growing secularization, the spiritual vitality of Buddhism was largely lost, along with the decline of the social and political power of Buddhist monasteries and temples and of the religion's cultural influence in general.

Belonging to the Mahayana (Greater Vehicle) Buddhism of East Asia, Japanese Buddhism generally preaches salvation in paradise for everyone, rather than individual perfection, and exists in a form quite different from that found in much of Southeast Asia. All of the more than 100 Buddhist sects in Japan today belong to or trace their origins back to the major branches of Buddhism that were brought into or developed in Japan in early times: Jodo, Jodo Shin, Nichiren, Shingon, Tendai, and Zen.

Immediately after World War II several new religious movements gained momentum, some of them based on Shinto, some related to certain sects of Buddhism, and others of mixed religious orientation. Many of these movements undertake various social and cultural activities within their close-knit religious communities; some also have come to engage in substantial political activities.

Christianity was brought into Japan by the Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Xavier in 1549. It spread rapidly in the second half of the century, an age of internal strife and commotion, being welcomed by those who needed a new spiritual symbol as well as by those who hoped to obtain trade benefits or new Western technology, especially firearms. Following the unification of the nation toward the end of the sixteenth century, however, the authorities suppressed all potential for further change and prohibited Christianity as subversive to the established order. Christianity remained banned until the middle of the nineteenth century, when Japan reopened its doors to the world. Among Christians in Japan, it was estimated that there were 440,000 Catholics and around 1 million Protestants as of the end of 1994.

The Japanese regard Confucianism as a code of moral precepts rather than a religion. Introduced into Japan at the beginning of the sixth century, Confucianism had a great impact on Japanese thought and behavior, but its influence has declined since World War II.