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COVID-19: Exploring Faith Dimensions
DAILY HIGHLIGHT
#53
Japan’s Religious Communities React to COVID-19

Japan is a notably non-religious society in some senses, but the distinctive Japanese culture has many religious overlays (and underlays), notably the heritage of Shinto and Buddhist practice. A review of Japanese religious practitioners sought information on how they were dealing with the onset of COVID-19: how adjusting to the call for self-restraint affected believers’ activities and institutional policies; what kinds of ritual responses individuals and institutions were devising; how religious professionals handled memorials, funerals, and other services for parishioners; and how clergy coped with a sudden loss of income as in-person services were canceled. The findings are fascinating, with features distinctive to Japan, “where religions are repositories of memories.” Reactions reflect Japan’s long history of “combining ritual with pragmatic social engagement in the face of disasters of all kinds.” The survey found both fatalism and hope: the latter expressed at times in prophetic terms that persevering through COVID-19 would lead into a brighter future; the former in realism about how the pandemic will exacerbate difficulties that afflict their groups, and Japan as a whole. 

Overall, the reactions highlight the diversity of Japan’s religious communities and quite wide differences (and divisions) among them. A feature linked to modern Japan is that widespread online access allows practitioners unprecedented chances to innovate across physical divides; many innovations are reported during the COVID crisis. Examples of grassroots-level online outreach abound. “The Facebook-based ‘Online Rosary Linked Sutra Reading’ (Onrain Juzu Tsunagi Dokkyō) connects the Gifu Prefecture-based Jōdo Shinshū priest Gotō Hiromi with worshippers, regardless of their sectarian affiliations. He began the group after he was forced to cancel this year’s higan (spring equinox) services and home visits to his parishioners.” Other religions in Japan are devising online solutions, and the Catholic Diocese of Tokyo, for example, suspended in-person attendance in March and began livestreaming its Sunday Mass.

One observed divide separates Japan’s “New Religions” (most established within the last hundred years or so), which moved more quickly to respond to the pandemic and public health guidance, and the more traditional entities (Buddhist and Shinto), which took longer to change practices. Soka Gakkai, an example of a new religious tradition, closed its general headquarters in Tokyo on February 17 and shut down nationwide on April 19, with communication among members only by telephone and messaging. Media focus on some New Religions appears to have contributed to early shutdowns, to avoid accusations of spreading the virus (linked to the Korea example). “The stigma that accompanies COVID-19 reinforces the fact that... the new/traditional religions divide has real-world consequences,” writes Levi McLaughlin. Between mid-February and early March, numerous groups labelled “New Religion,” including Risshō Kōseikai, Shinnyo-en, Seichō no Ie, and Sekai Kyūseikyō, like Soka Gakkai, were some of the first Japanese organizations of any sort to close their headquarters and cancel in-person events. 

Kōfuku no Kagaku (Happy Science in English) attracted particular attention, following a New York Times article that focused on “quirky” features. “For a fee, the religion offers ‘spiritual vaccines’ to fight COVID-19, made available by its spiritual leader Ōkawa Ryūhō.” This service caught attention when sash-wearing Happy Science adherents handed out brochures in the streets of Manhattan. The religion publicizes reigen, or “spirit words,” “which Ōkawa channels from aliens and the spirit world,” alongside messages from protector deities that hover above famous figures, living and dead, such as Donald Trump, Xi Jinping, and John Lennon.

More broadly, Japan’s mainstays - temple Buddhism, shrine-based Shinto, the mountain asceticism tradition Shugendō, and other religious exponents, new and old - carry out rituals to combat the pandemic. The vast majority of Japanese rely on data-driven scientific understandings of the coronavirus epidemic to guide their actions and to seek treatment, “but aid from the kami and buddhas for deliverance from pestilence still holds appeal.” Ritual expulsion of COVID-19 is widespread across Japan. For example, Shinto priests at Matatabisha performed a Gion goryōe, or “assembly at Gion for angry spirits,” specifically aimed at quelling malevolent powers for the quick elimination of coronavirus.

As in other countries, finances are challenging, and fear of losing income is a motivation for moving services online. Some clerics rely on a salary and can offer their Buddhist services free of charge, but most full-time priests need donations to support their families and maintain their temples. Religious juridical persons (shūkyō hōjin) are included among organizations that may apply for special financial assistance included in a 108 trillion yen (US$997 billion) stimulus package, but it will not apply to all, especially small temples and shrines.

Japanese religious adherents and institutions have long traditions of mobilizing support during times of crisis, notably after earthquakes, the 2011 tsunami, and nuclear disaster. The COVID-19 crisis is posing difficult questions for religious individuals and groups as to how best to mobilize, and how to build on the experiences of the 2011 tsunami crisis. “How can volunteers attend to those in need when they are supposed to remain quarantined? How should religions respond when the crisis is not in one afflicted zone but is everywhere people are to be found? How should religions coordinate with a chaotic Japanese government response that has seen waffling at the national level and inconsistent leadership by prefectural and municipal politicians?”

(Based on: May 1, 2020, Asia-Pacific Journal article) 

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