English

Japanese religion

Religion for Japanese

TOP > Japanese religion

Japanese Religion

I would like to introduce you Japanese religion in this page.

If you know Christianity, you can appreciate more about European culture and European paintings. In the same way, you can enjoy traveling in Japan more if you know Japanese religion.

Many of the properties registered in the World Heritages in Japan are related to religion. If you travel Japan, you must have a lot of opportunity to visit Shrines and Temples.
So I would like to outline the Japanese religion and relitious institutions.

Shinto and Buddhism
Japanese main religions are Shinto and Buddhism.
Most of Japanese worship both. On the new years day, they visit Shrine. When they die, they are buried in the tomb of Temple.
Their lives relate to both institutions.

To know this fact, some people say 'Japanese people are irreligious'.
But I don't think it is true, because both religions have the same root.

This is the thought of syncretization of Shinto and Buddhism.
In this thought, Eight million Gods of Shinto are appeared all over Japane as the personifications of Buddha.

So they have the same devotion if you go worship to Shrinet or Temple.
I even can say that they worship the same religious object.

Other religions
There are other minority religions.
Christianity comes after Shinto and Buddhism.
There are many communions like Catholic, Protestant, Russia orthodox, etc.

The number of Christins in Japan is less than 1%.
Even so, they celebrate Christmas. They celebrate not as a religious event, but only for enjoying the atmosphere.
Because they listen to the story of Santa Claus who gives presents from their childhood, they think Christmas as a day to exchange the presents

Other than Christianity, there is Muslims and many other cult religions.