Thinking religious-culturally

By Yas Mamemachi

Tokyo, Japan

Professor Inoue (Photo by Yas Mamemachi)

eligious issues are tricky for many Japanese because they rarely think about such matters seriously.

Most Japanese have no problem going to Shinto shrines (Shinto is the Japanese indigenous religion) and/or Buddhist temples from time to time, praying for their families’ health and happiness. Many also love to have their wedding ceremonies in Christian churches. In fact, weddings in churches and Buddhist funerals seem to be accepted without any feeling of contradiction.

The term “religion” also reminds many Japanese of state sponsorship of Shintoism during World War II, or religious cult Aum Shinrikyo’s Sarin gas attack in Tokyo, as well as other murky cults’ proselytizing on university campuses, depending on the generation, all of which have lent religion a negative image.

As a result, Japanese tend to lean away from religious matters; or try not to be involved in any related issues.

They know that staying away from any religious matter is not the best solution anymore. Somehow they need to be involved, but the problem is what way.

Professor Nobutaka Inoue of Kokugakuin University in Tokyo, a school that has one of the best religious study programs in Japan, including studies of Shinto, has introduced a unique solution by establishing a new research center, the Center for Education in Religious Culture, or CERC, and offering a new certificate of Specialist in Religious Culture.

The first certification examination was held at six universities nationwide in November 2011.

The examination includes two types of tests: One consists of 50 multiple-choice questions (60 minutes), and the other is open-ended (60 minutes).

According to the center’s official website, in order to qualify for the examination, it is necessary for the student to have passed at minimum the first three years of a university undergraduate degree program and acquired 16 credits worth of courses that conform to attainment targets.

These targets include: (1) the ability to understand the meaning of religious culture, including religious teachings, rituals, and myths; (2) the ability to acquire basic knowledge of major religious traditions such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shinto; and (3) the ability to possess generally applicable knowledge about the role of religions in various issues facing the contemporary world.

Students who have already acquired 12 credits and are reading for the remaining course(s) are also eligible to take the examination.

In addition, (1) only university graduates who have acquired their degree within two years from the date of the examination can, in principle, take the examination; (2) returning students, non-degree students, and other special cases are subject to a separate screening; and (3) postgraduate students can count their undergraduate module credits.

Moreover, junior high and high school teachers are also eligible to take the examination. In this case, a teaching history of 5 years or more in related subjects (such as ‘society’ and/or ‘religion’) is necessary.

Many people may wonder what types of questions are asked in the exam. Let’s look at some sample questions provided at the official website.

Sample question 1:

Q. Choose among the following two sentences that correctly correspond to a situation in which you happen to be talking to a foreign exchange student on the campus of a Japanese university.

a) To a student from Iraq: “Muhammad was born in your country, right?”

b) To a student from Italy: “Jesus was born in your country, right?”

c) To a student from Germany: “Martin Luther was born in your country, right?”

d) To a student from South Korea: “Lao Tzu was born in your country, right?”

e) To a student from India: “Bodhidharma was born in your country, right?”

How about the second sample question?

Q. Choose among the following, two travel destinations you would suggest to someone interested in religion and world heritage sites.

a) To someone interested in Protestantism, I would suggest visiting the archaeological site of Olympia in Greece.

b) To someone who is interested in Buddhism, I would suggest visiting the Taj Mahal in India.

c) To someone who is interested in Catholicism, I would suggest visiting the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres in France.

d) To someone who is interested in Islam, I would suggest visiting the pyramid complex of Giza, in Egypt.

e) To someone who is interested in Mahayana Buddhism, I would suggest visiting Bulguksa, in Gyeongju, South Korea.

Let’s try two more.

Q. Choose two statements that correctly describe Islam.

a) The recitation of the Shahada is the most important activity for Muslims.

b) The prayers that are carried out five times a day prayer must be performed while facing north regardless of the location.

c) Even pork, if it is prepared by a Muslim, can become halal and be eaten.

d) It is forbidden for Muslims to drink alcohol.

e) It is forbidden to eat day and night during the month of Ramadan.

Q. Choose two statements that correctly describe Japanese annual events.

a) During Hatsumode, more people visit shrines than temples.

b) Setsubun was originally a ritual celebrating children’s growth.

c) Many people visit their ancestors’ graves during the Higan holidays of Spring and Autumn.

d) Obon is a shrine festival during which gods are thanked for the year’s harvest.

e) The Tanabata festival was originally a Christian celebration.

I found these questions very interesting, so I decided to visit Professor Inoue’s office on campus and ask him some questions about the certificate and its background.

Kokugakuin University is located near Shibuya, one of Tokyo’s busiest districts. But the word “near” is crucial. Shibuya is well-known for creating new fashions and trends, particularly for the younger generations. The area is crowded and even chaotic.

However, the outlying areas are very quiet. The university campus is in a different world, though it is located near Shibuya.

The professor’s office is on the 16th floor of a newly built high-rise research building, but it looks like what you would expect a professor’s office to look like, with large amounts of books and papers, and used coffee cups.

He started our conversation with how the idea of the Certificate in Religious Culture came about.

“We all know religious education has been somehow necessary in the development of globalization. We are also allowed to teach general knowledge of religion in public school. So it is important how instructors in, say, social studies or ethics in junior high school teach the essence of religious knowledge within the framework of their subjects,” says Inoue.

“The problem is that most instructors in public schools have little knowledge of religious matters. So we need to develop human resources who can teach knowledge of these subjects at school. The other problem is that the term ‘religion’ has a negative connotation in school, not to mention in society in general. We were shocked when we realized we could not use the word ‘religion,’ which is supposed to be a simple and plain term, for our project. Even in course orientation on campus, once the word ‘religion’ is spotlighted, some students told me that felt suspicious, wondering what actually would be taught in the course.”

The professor then came up with the idea of using a buzz word, “culture,” along with the unpopular word, “religion.” While “religion” made them feel suspicious, “religious culture” piqued the students’ interest in the class.

For some ingrained skeptics, the professor has released as much related information as possible online, including the sample questions from the exam mentioned above, as well as a program on religiously and culturally important World Heritage Sites and quizes on basic glossaries related to religious culture.

Now he is working on improving motion picture programs on the center’s website.

“Motion pictures on religious cultures all over the world will have a priority in our online programs in the future,” adds the professor. “We wish we could go to, let’s say, somewhere in Africa, since we would like to know about their indigenous religious cultures, but we can’t. So the center is hoping to provide educational motion pictures on these cultures, the ones that are a fresh departure from rather sensational news reporting.”

The ultimate aim of a certificate in religious culture is to see things from the other person’s perspective, says Inoue. Different people have different perspectives. It may not be easy to imagine and understand how ‘they’ look at the same things in different ways. It takes some time to train each of us.

As for religious matters, it is particularly difficult and complicated to think from other perspectives or different religious viewpoints, since any religion is made up of critical components, including religious principles, perspectives of the world, the meaning of death, and the afterlife, all of which are greatly respected.

“Let’s take a religious group's refusal to receive blood transfusions as an example,” says Inoue. “It might be true for many average Japanese that the group's refusal to receive blood transfusions for members’ children sounds cruel. However, for the members who believe in the afterlife, if dying means accepting the end of life as well as eternal salvation, they have no reason to violate one of their religious precepts when they die.”

“This is not an issue of right-or-wrong, or whether you can do it or not. Such things are meant to happen because they believe in the afterlife. The important thing is you are trying to imagine their way of thinking and respect it at a certain level,” the professor adds.

Inside Japan

The greater attention on religious cultures outside Japan may give us a fresh opportunity to think about counter-cultures inside Japan and wonder how our own religious cultures should and could be explained; how we can live with Shinto, which was used as the state religion to bring us into a devastating war.

Inoue agreed with this point, saying “Our own religious cultures, the things that are very close to us but are easy to explain in a reasonable manner are tied up with various value systems. In other words, one might say some parts should be abandoned, but for the other the same parts should be protected. That’s why it would be more complicated than when we are talking about related ‘foreign’ cultures.”

But he is optimistic and positive about the matter because “our own culture has already become foreign to many Japanese these days.”

The professor points out that many Japanese people can only vaguely distinguish Shinto shrines from Buddhist temples, or Shinto priests from Buddhist monks. They don’t know the roles that either plays.

“The reality of this matter in Japan is that there is almost no difference from providing cross-culture training to foreign students who visit here. What we are trying to do is learn basics, such as our own traditional cultures and the basic viewpoints of modern religions, all of which are required when thinking about various value systems around the world.”

“Once you know these basics, you should continue to study different cultures to find out similarities and differences in value systems yourself. Then, you have to find answers yourself,” the professor adds.

Tolerant or intolerant

As mentioned above, many Japanese do not hesitate to accept different religious practices. They rather enjoy them. A common term in international relations, “religious–based clash,” is rarely heard in Japan. Are Japanese tolerant to differences in religious culture?

“Well, I doubt it,” says Inoue. “What if 3-4% of a population of Japan applies their religious practices, most of which are foreign to many Japanese, in their daily lives? Are we still tolerant of such different customs?”

The professor says that present Japanese society is still very different from a society with a large number of people who enjoy different social and religious customs.

“Many Japanese have rarely experienced living and ‘surviving’ in multi-ethnic societies, such as the United States and Malaysia,” says Inoue. “I think it would take a little more time to conclude such argument: Whether or not Japanese can be religious-culturally tolerant.”

Shinto reconsidered

After all, how should we explain our religious beliefs to international students or guests from other countries?

I personally think that many Japanese people are influenced by their indigenous religion, Shinto, either consciously or unconsciously, as I am asked this kind of question.

And I confessed that I explained to my friends in the US and other countries that multiple gods are enshrined in Japan, including human beings, animals, natural gods, and even foreign gods, and that we use a Japanese term "yaoyorozu no kami," to describe eight million gods around us or in our lives.

There is no knowledge –based explanation, only what I have believed for years. Some Americans love this way of thinking. Was my explanation wrong? I asked the professor.

“As for Shinto, your explanation is correct,” Inoue says with smile. “However, from a religious studies standpoint, the explanation, which is gods live anywhere, including inside us, is not exclusive to Shinto. It exists in many other religions. We call this way of religious thinking animism,” says Inoue.

“Even in Christian theology, which studies one of the monotheistic religions, some researchers argue that our every action is done by God. So from their standpoint, there is basically no difference between our animism and their monotheistic religion, theologically speaking. To me, animism seems to be simpler and more straightforward, though.”

The professor advises that many people who have similar experiences, living in the United States and talking to Christian Americans who give some credit to Shintoism, such as me, avoid possible misinterpretations that they envy Shintoism.

“To most of them, the simplicity of animism just sounds good. That’s all. There is little correlation with Shinto,” says Inoue.

Undoubtedly, Japanese culture is strongly influenced by Shinto. Japanese culture puts part of it into Shinto. The Japanese indigenous religion was developed by village farming, fishing, or forestry communities that dominated the nation. The religion was the most important medium among these villagers.

Today no such communities remain in Japan, and local connections are far weaker than they were in the old days. People are far more independent and society has become more complex.

“Shinto should be reconsidered to fit a ‘different’ Japan, considering which part of Shintoism should be protected and which part let go with changes in society,” says Inoue.

“Moreover, we have a history in which Shinto was used as a tool for expanding militarism, just as the indiscriminate attacks conducted by Islam terrorists were justified in the name of jihad today. So a variety of international news on religious –based wrongdoings is their problem, not ours. That is a wrong way of thinking and might contain potential dangers, I could say.”

Boundary of cults

Speaking of potential dangers a religion may contain, we cannot ignore the issue of religious cults. Aum Shinrikyo’s Sarin gas attack in Tokyo in 1995 are legally closed cases; however, their impact still has a devastating effect on Japanese society.

The attention to and positive expectation for the new certificate will take us into serious consideration about issues of religious cults, including how we can discriminate “acceptable” religions and cults.

According to Inoue, there are two ways to identify a certain religious organization as a cult.

One way is that a number of conditions are introduced to draw a boundary between cults and non-cults. For instance, if the religious organization A’s activities and teachings satisfy some conditions, A should be acknowledged as a cult.

The other is that no specific conditions are applied for discriminating the religious cult organizations. However, if the teachings of the religious organizations accept any activity that is not allowed in terms of conventional wisdom, and/or the leading members give their approval to such anti-social acts in the name of freedom of religion, such organizations should be called religious cults.

“About Aum Shinrikyo, for instance, it is true that some lower members of the organization simply practiced meditation, and did not know what their leader and the members close to him were trying to do in the name of their religious culture. But the reality is that they accepted the killing of people as a necessary and inevitable measure. They were no longer a religious organization,” says Inoue.

He adds that it is not easy to distinguish between acceptable religious organizations and unacceptable cults because Aum Shinrikyo was one of the most extremely violent cases, but many suspicious organizations are artfully cunning.

On the basis of his 16-year research, Inoue published a book, Aum Shinrikyo in the Age of Information (in Japanese), which sheds light on what the religious organization had done before the 1995 Sarin gas attack.

“The important thing to know is not that a religious organization called Aum Shinrikyo performed unimaginable terrorist acts, but how the organization had been lead up to the attacks,” says the professor. “That will be of great help in realizing boundaring in the future.”

The Center for Education in Religious Culture has just started. It is too early to discuss the center’s future, but Inoue hopes that it will play a key role in religious culture globally.

“When considering Japan, which is religious-culturally in a unique position, I think we can.”