On Being Nonreligious in Contemporary Japan: Decline, Antipathy, and Aversion to Institutions

Challenging the notion of the nonreligious in Japan being religious through tradition and institution, this book demonstrates how negativity and antipathy for religion relate to religious decline in Japan today.Why do most Japanese say they are ‘nonreligious’ (mushukyo)?Since the 1990s, scholars have answered this key question for understanding religion in contemporary Japan as follows: although the Japanese say they are nonreligious because they do not identify with a particular religious tradition or institution, they are in fact religious through their traditional practices; New Year’s visits to shinto Shrines, Buddhist mortuary rites and festivals (matsuri) are typically seen as customs rather than as religious. Challenging this answer, this book argues that many Japanese say they are nonreligious because they actually dislike religion and want to distance themselves from it.To support this argument, the book explores how religion is in decline in Japan today.Demonstrating how nega