What Religion Are Japanese? (Patreon)

I asked this question back when I was a student and I've heard other foreigners ask it throughout the years. A lot of time you'll get uncomfortable laughs or 'no reiigion'. I had a university friend who insisted the answer was 'money'. But I do have a favorite answer that I've heard repeated by Japanese friends and family and others. It's kind of a light-hearted joke, but wonderfully self aware, I think. It goes something like this:

When Japanese are born, they're Shinto; when they marry, they're Christian; and when they die they're Buddhist.

日本人は生まれたときは神道、結婚する時はキリスト教、死ぬ時は仏教.

Of course, this isn't absolutely true, but in general you'll find Shinto rituals followed after the birth of a baby. Also things like visits to the shrine to pray for health and good fortune.

Then when it's time to get married, it's pretty popular to have your ceremony at one of the "christian" churches you'll find everywhere. Christian is in quotes because while there are real churches, a lot of the ones that are very lavish, sometimes to the point of gaudy, hire foreign men to dress up in robes and perform the wedding ceremony. The marriage is registered with the city hall, it's legit, only the whole fancy ceremony of it is just for show. I've known quite a few people who have acted as priests or preachers. I hear it's really good money.

Below is a graph (not sure the year) where dark pink shows the percentage of christian-type weddings (61.8%), not-quite-as-dark pink is Shinto (18.8%), light pink is civil ceremonies (17.9%), and that 0.5% is Buddhist weddings (very rare).

So after your wedding, I guess the next big life event is the funeral.

Below we have your percentages of of people opting for Buddhist funerals (88%), orange is Shinto (3%), red is called "friend ceremony" (3%) and it sounds like it's a funeral where you don't use a Buddhist priest and no posthumous name is give (<-- big deal having one of these. I'll blog about this later. It's quite interesting.), yellow is a Christian funeral (1%), blue is No Religion Ceremony (2%), green is something other (1%), and dark blue is No information (3%).

So overwhelmingly Buddhism when it comes to funerals.

However, times are changing, too, and the number of Buddhist funerals are decreasing a little. There might be other reasons, but one I know for sure is that Japanese funerals are the most expensive in the world (over two million yen/25,000 USD) and as much as I love Buddhism, this is seriously messed up. Also, you have to pay yearly fees to keep the ohaka (grave). Some are very much like rental spaces.

I have a good friend who lost their baby and invited me to the memorial ceremony. I (along with everyone else there) was quite surprised by the altar, not the traditional butsudan.

Here's a basic butsudan (two actually). You can get yours for 398,000 yen (64% off!), around 2,600 USD. Lotsa gold leaf.

Instead they had a Soreidan 祖霊団. This is a big one. My friend's was half this size. Lotsa wood.

Soreidans are different that kamidanas (another post!), by the way. Kamidana house certain Shinto spirits/gods, while the soreidan houses the ancestor(s) who have passed away.

Anyway, he told me that that the new "trend" is Shinto funerals. This was some years ago, mind you, but both he and his wife said the reason is they are much cheaper than Buddhist funerals, not as much fuss, and much brighter.

I find it fascinating the interplay between Shinto and Buddhism through the ages and am now on a quest to find more information on the history from the introduction of Buddhism when the merging of religions was encourages (Shinbutsu Shūgō) to the Meiji Restoration when they were forced apart again in 1886 (Shinbutsu Bunri).

Okay, this idea is from some eagle-eyed patrons who noticed the funeral in Shogun had both Shinto and Buddhist elements. Great show!

XO,

t