How Japan's Religions Confront Tragedy

CNN Belief Blog:

Proud of their secular society, most Japanese aren't religious in the way Americans are: They tend not to identify with a single tradition nor study religious texts.

"The average Japanese person doesn’t consciously turn to Buddhism until there’s a funeral,” says Brian Bocking, an expert in Japanese religions at Ireland’s University College Cork.

When there is a funeral, though, Japanese religious engagement tends to be pretty intense.

Read the whole story: CNN Belief Blog

Comments

[yappnmutt]

11:23 PM on 03/15/2011

i guess it is too expensive to actually ask a japanese buddhist priest what their temple will be doing.

this article is as religiously biased as an article on religion could be. buddhism, unlike the abrahamic religions familiar to westerners, is not necessarily a central part of a japanese person's life. a buddhist can go for an entire life and never enter a temple but can still consider himself a buddhist.

[Indigo1941]

10:38 PM on 03/15/2011

Once over lightly with a big brush and what insight is there? Generalities. I wonder what an analysis of religious sentiment in the United States after 9/11 by pseudo-experts on the West at second rate universities in Japan had to say? Nothing any more insightful that this article, I bet. Just wondering . . .

[shylove2]

09:00 PM on 03/15/2011

But all countries have their own national gods that look after them in their wars... maybe they are just wargods and there have been lots of wars and it has always been the other gods fault...

[Indigo1941]

10:39 PM on 03/15/2011

Good point. It's always the other guy.

[Syllogizer]

07:27 PM on 03/15/2011

The bit about turning to Buddhism only for funerals I find easy to believe. I noticed years ago when I was in Japan, that the congregation in the Buddhist temples has the same air of near total inattention that I see in Christian Churches in the US.

[sonjasmom]

03:48 PM on 03/15/2011

One of the largest Buddhist groups in Japan, Soka Gakkai, has opened its community centers in affected areas as shelters, and members from less-affected areas are shipping supplies, including food, water, blankets, and generators, to the damaged localities to assist in the recovery. Local members are actively searching for missing residents. I would suspect that other religious organizations are also doing more than simply thinking about funerals.

[Myoho Mod]

06:40 PM on 03/15/2011

Maybe not the Shoshu Priests. Nikken Abe is ringing the register.

[MilesToGo]

11:06 PM on 03/15/2011

Thanks for the report. I suspect you're quite correct in assuming much more is being done than thinking about or preparing for funerals.

[HCLiberal]

02:32 PM on 03/15/2011

Wouldn't it be better to use data from surveys rather than the opinions of a couple of "experts", such as Brocking, to decide religious bent of the Japanese?

Here are some data: 64-65% of Japanese are non-believers in god.
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html

Judging by the way Japanese are handling this crisis, with such calm and dignity and poise, I would conclude that religion has very little to do with how well one copes with tragedies and crises.

[sandalwood]

04:54 PM on 03/15/2011

Um... Buddhists generally are non-theistic. The Western category "religion" is not so useful when looking upon the East. Also, the same can be said of Taoists.

[HCLiberal]

07:35 PM on 03/15/2011

Yeah, I know that. It is for that reason that many, for good reason, view Buddhism as a philosophy, rather than a religion. That is just a definition of terms. When I said "religion", I meant religions that claim a supernatural entity.

[Syllogizer]

07:29 PM on 03/15/2011

Not necessarily. Opinion polls and surveys are notoriously unreliable. Really, the best way to proceed is to use both as a check on each other. But even this requires expertise, so guess what: another reason to turn to 'experts' -- who we hope really are experts.

[HCLiberal]

07:39 PM on 03/15/2011

So, why before every election each candidate spends money on polls? Is that because of lack of political experts?
As to reliability, I know more unreliable experts than unreliable polls and surveys.