Growing up in Kentucky, religion was an integral part of my life, as it is to many Americans, especially those from the South. My family prayed before every meal, and I went to church twice a week for most of my childhood. Almost everyone I knew was a Christian. In Japan, however, meeting people raised in this sort of religious tradition is very rare.
Japan is not a religious country, but religion is an important part of Japanese society, just in a different way than in the United States. The two most influential and visible religions in modern Japan are Shinto and Buddhism. Shinto is the native religion of Japan, but over 95 percent of Japanese identify themselves as Buddhist.
Despite this seemingly dominant win by Buddha over the sun goddess Amaterasu and various other Shinto gods (called "kami"), Shinto is just as visible and pervasive in Japan as Buddhism. Shrines and temples are dispersed liberally throughout Tokyo and Japan as a whole, and various festivals and holidays of both religions are widely celebrated by the Japanese people.
The concept of syncretism explains this seeming conflict between statistics and observation. Syncretism is basically the melding of different religious traditions. In Japan, religion is not taken particularly seriously or adhered to as strictly as it is in many other parts of the world. It is not unusual for a Japanese person to go to Shinto shrines on holidays, get married in a Christian ceremony and have a Buddhist funeral.
The role of religion in everyday life is one of tradition. Shinto and Buddhist shrines can be found anywhere, from a busy street corner to the top of the Tokyo Tower to a hiking trail in a park. Often there is a container in front of the shrine for worshipers to throw a coin into and a bell or gong to ring after the prayer is finished and the obligatory dual handclap is completed.
At one shrine I often pass, I have seen hunchbacked old women, businessmen and children with their parents. The wide appeal of the shrines are for most people not based on any deep-held beliefs but rather on tradition and familiarity. The teachings of Shinto and Buddhism appeal to many Japanese but do not define their lives as Christianity often does for Christians in the U.S.
The role of religion in politics in Japan is also very different from its role elsewhere. In Japan, religious affiliation is not really a factor in elections or governance. The only impact it really has on politics is the participation of the prime minister in various traditions that almost every Japanese person observes anyway. One politically charged religious tradition, however, is the visitation of the Yasukuni Shrine to pay respects to the spirits of military personnel killed in the service of their country. Chinese and Koreans have a problem with the shrine because it supposedly contains the souls of several war criminals who committed crimes in China and Korea. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited the shrine several times while he was in office, stirring outrage each time, but his successors have not done so.
I was only slightly familiar with Buddhism before I came to Japan, and even less familiar with Shinto. I still find it difficult to understand their teachings and beliefs, but then again, so do a lot of Japanese people. One thing I have learned, though, is that Shinto and Buddhist festivals and holidays kick ass. When presented with the choice of attending a church bake sale and buying some delicious brownies or going to a mountain to watch chanting Buddhist monks act out sword fights with demons and walk barefoot on hot coals, I would go for the latter every time.
