Mark R. Mullins

Secularization, Deprivatization, and the Reappearance of ‘Public Religion’ in Japanese Society1

AbstractSociological theories about the fate of religion in modern societies originated in Europe and were initially based on the history of Western Christianity. Whether or not these theoretical perspectives are useful for the analysis of other religious traditions in non-Western regions of the world has been the focus of considerable debate for decades. This article engages some of the familiar theories of secularization in light of major developments in Japanese religion and society over the past two centuries. While it has been widely assumed that modernization inevitably brings with it a decline in religion, the first phase of this process in Japan was accompanied by the creation of a powerful new form of religion—State Shintō—that served to unite the nation around a common set of symbols and institutions for half a century. This was followed by the rapid and forced secularization of Shintō during the Allied Occupation (1945-1952), which essentially privatized or removed it from public institutions. Since the end of the Occupation, however, there has been an ongoing movement to restore the special status of Shintō and its role in the public sphere. Even though recent case studies and survey research indicate that individual religiosity and organized religions are facing serious decline today, the reappearance of religion in public life and institutions represented by this restoration movement also needs to be taken into account in our assessment of secularization in contemporary Japan.

Religious Minorities in Canada: A Sociological Study of the Japanese Experience

A sociological study of Japanese religious life in Canada, this focuses on the Japanese community and the organizational development of their churches. The work discusses the nature of religious pluralism in contemporary Canadian society.

Religious Minorities and the Public Sphere: Kagawa Toyohiko and Christian “Counterpublics” in Modern Japanese Society

This chapter examines the significance of Christianity in the public sphere through a case study of Kagawa Toyohiko (1888–1960)—one important Japanese Protestant leader—whose vision and activities had a formative influence and social impact during the first half of the twentieth century. As a prolific author, social reformer, evangelist, and public speaker, his influence extended far beyond the minority religious community. Under Kagawa’s leadership, counterpublics were forged and, on occasion, representatives of this minority tradition—so often regarded as peripheral to mainstream Japanese society—were also given a role to play in the dominant public sphere. This study highlights Kagawa’s distinctive contributions through a review of his activities in the changing political environments of Taishō democracy and wartime Japan.

Religion in Occupied Japan: The Impact of SCAP’s Policies on Shinto

This chapter examines the fate of Shinto during the Occupation period (1945–1952). The principles and policies enacted by SCAP’s Religions Division sought to remove state support for Shinto shrines and eliminate their role in the public sphere. This top-down removal of religion from public institutions was essentially a process of “imperialist secularization.” Shinto survived the Occupation by embracing a nonpolitical “religious” identity and by exercising self-censorship. The principle of religion–state separation was applied strictly to Shinto, but Christianity received quasi-official support during this period due to General MacArthur’s conviction that it was indispensable for the “democratization” of Japan. While the Occupation brought about a new level of religious freedom for the Japanese people and many different religious groups, the record shows that religion–state separation was not so easily achieved.

Neonationalism, Politics, and Religion in Post-disaster Japan

Recent decades have seen a rise in religious nationalism around the world, and Japan is no exception. As highlighted in the lead chapter by Koichi Nakano, over the past two decades there has been a significant rightward shift in Japanese politics. This trend is closely related to organized religion and its affiliated political efforts to reshape various dimensions of Japanese society. When the topic of religion and politics is referred to in the Japanese context, it is usually in relation to Sōka Gakkai and Kōmeitō. It is well known that Sōka Gakkai, the largest Buddhist new religion in postwar Japan, was not content to cultivate the piety of its followers in the private sphere, but formed its own political party, the Kōmeitō, with a vision of shaping public life according to its principles and ideals. Sōka Gakkai’s political engagement has been the focus of considerable criticism and public debate, as well as scholarly research.1

Japanese Saints: Mormons in the Land of the Rising SunJapanese Saints: Mormons in the Land of the Rising Sun, by HoffmannJohn P.. New York, NY: Lexington Books, 2007. 231 pp.

nizing this demographic shift, Hollywood studios attempted to attract this growing body of wealthy and educated individuals into the cinemas by actively redefining film as an artistic medium. However, the mere presence of an opportunity space is not enough for a cultural product to be successfully received as art. Certain institutional resources and activities that cater towards society’s recognition of an “art world” are also needed. For Hollywood films, this meant the growth of film festivals, the economically motivated push towards “art houses,” as well as the shift from a studio-centered to a director-centered film industry, all of which occurred in the late 1950s and 1960s. Baumann skillfully describes how all of these conditions fostered the image of Hollywood films as art. Nevertheless, for a cultural product to be received as art it must also be “intellectualized.” This last demand was met with the adoption of the popular French auteur theory by American universities as well as the employment of artistic concepts in film reviews in the late 1960s. From a sociology of culture standpoint, Baumann is largely successful in offering a thorough, detailed account of Hollywood’s transformation from mere entertainment into art. This success can be attributed to Baumann’s blend of historical, statistical, and qualitative evidence. For example, not being satisfied with simply stating the logical argument that television drew attendance away from cinemas, Baumann statistically examines the empirical link between the emergence of television and cinema attendance figures (p. 43). This is not the only instance where Baumann utilizes serious statistical measures, which generally add strength to his account. Furthermore, in one particularly powerful section, Baumann compares quotes by directors from the 1920s to 1940s with directors from the 1960s. While the earlier directors stridently resist the classification of their works as art, the directors from the 1960s actively proclaim the artistic merit of their films (p. 60). Equally as impressive, Baumann includes a content analysis of film reviews from 1925 to 1985 to showcase how it was only in the late 1960s that film critics began to incorporate specialized vocabularies into their reviews more appropriate for judging art than entertainment (p. 120). In general, Baumann’s meticulous attention to the multiple facets of Hollywood lends strong support to a sociological explanation of Hollywood’s transformation into an art world. This is not to say that Hollywood Highbrow is without potential faults. In his attention to Hollywood’s transition into “art,” Baumann may be depicting too drastic an historical rupture. As Baumann illustrates, film reviews utilizing artistic vocabulary significantly increased in the 1950s and 1960s. However, artistic vocabulary occasionally appeared beforehand. According to Baumann, these earlier cases were designated mainly to “avant-garde” journals, and did not reflect “mainstream” sentiment (p.115). Yet, Baumann’s analysis notes that artistic terms appeared among such “mainstream” publications as the New York Times, The New Yorker, and Time as far back as 1925 (p. 120). Similarly, while the bulk of scholarly work focusing on Hollywood films emerged in the late 1950s and 1960s, a small amount appeared earlier. As Baumann points out, there were on average two books published per year between 1925 and 1965 pertaining to film aesthetics (p. 69). These points certainly do not disprove Baumann’s central thesis. However, perhaps a more thorough understanding of the Hollywood film world would have been achieved if a more in-depth account of these outliers and why they had such seemingly insignificant social influence was provided. Despite this minor concern, Hollywood Highbrow: From Entertainment to Art serves as a strong example of what sociology of culture approaches, such as the one utilized by Baumann, can offer. This book can be used in graduate and undergraduate sociology of culture courses and will interest scholars and film buffs alike.

70.00 cloth. 9780739116890.

Indigenization has been defined as the process whereby foreign-born religions are transformed through contact with native religion and culture.1 In the case of Japan, the syncretistic beliefs and practices of folk religion constitute the native culture to which foreign-born religions have been forced to adapt Folk religion has been referred to as the comparatively stable “substructure” of Japanese religion (H ori 1968,p. 18). According to Miyake (1972, p. 122),“it is within the frame of reference provided by folk religion that the organized religions have made their way into Japanese society. Only as they accommodated themselves to folk religion and its implicit norms did