The Inner Workings of Religion in Japan

My experience of religion in Japan, other than visiting a lot of temples and shrines since I have been here, has been based on how my host family acts and what I have been able to discuss with them; the other people that I have had the opportunity to talk to have in general claimed not to have a religion. Religion plays a big part in the life of my host family, not just on a daily level (my host parents pray at home every evening and every morning get up at 3.30 to go to a local temple to pray) but it influences their life decisions in a big way. My okaasan also volunteers at a temple on a regular basis, and I was intrigued to find out how this fitted in to the working of the temple, and it turns out it is what keeps the temples running. No-one is paid at any of the temples she goes to, including the priests - they live on what is donated by practitioners and visiting tourists. The temple that my okaasan belongs to is cleaned daily by groups of volunteers, mostly retired old men and women who work on a rotational schedule working maybe one day a month. Meaning roughly 200 people volunteer at her temple alone, leading me to the conclusion that despite the general population not claiming a religion, many must practice it given that one temple needs so many people to keep it running. The number of temples and shrines alone should give you some idea of the popularity of religion in Japan. I have to admit however that the people I have asked aside from my host family have been the younger generation, and there is the theory in Japan that Buddhism is embraced when death is nearing! Keep an eye out for how religion affects the lives of the average Japanese and you might be surprised at how prevalent it is.

 

A new car being blessed at a Shinto shrine 

Gender Interaction

Contact between sexes seems to be discouraged in Japan; cuddling and kissing in public is not done, and for many young people living with their parents (a common occurence in Japan) there is little room for developing close personal relationships, and here I am not only talking about sex but about the non-sexual contact that a couple might take for granted in Westernised countries, such as staying at a boyfriends house or cuddling on the sofa in front of your parents. When I first experienced the shock created by hugging in public, I assumed that I had committed a faux pas and was being considered rude; however when asking my host family if I had behaved out of order they assured me that not only would my 'spectators' have compensated by labelling me a 'gaijin' (foreigner), but public displays of affection are not considered to be rude. From what I could gather, it has more to do with the Japanese sense of privacy - for example people are rarely even invited into the house, and it takes a long time to build up relationships in which to share intimate details about your life. When you think of these everyday situations, it seems logical that affection towards another person would be something that also takes a long time to build up, and is considered something private and to be kept behind closed doors. I believe this has led to the popularity of certain social spaces reserved for the interaction with the opposite sex, such as love hotels where couples can escape the confines of the parental home, and Host/Hostess bars (1) where drinks and food are accompanied by the man or woman of your choice. Although there is no longer such a stress on relationships leading to marriage there is still a formalised attitude towards gender interaction.

(1) Ann Allison gives a good anthropological account of what goes on in Hostess bars, and why they are popular with the Japanese 'psyche', in her book Nightwork: Sexuality, Pleasure, and Corporate Masculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club.