Japanese Religion

Since the Nara Period of 710 to 794 AD, the Japanese were heavily influenced by the surrounding countries in terms of their religion and their governmental policies. Present day Japan’s history has been greatly influenced by the religions as old as that of the Nara Period. Religions such as Buddhism, Shintoism and a mix of Christianity have been more than just a belief, but the Japanese traditions and culture. With this confusion between religion and the moral education led to the present day wars in Japan regarding whether or not religion should be implemented in the Japanese schools’ curriculum. The religion should not be implemented in Japan’s school system because the teachers are not well trained or well versed enough to teach about religion

Most Japanese would refer to themselves as believers of Shintoism and Buddhism. Christianity was introduced to the Japanese in 1543 when missionaries led by Francis Xavier arrived in Japan. However during this time Japan’s national religion was Buddhism. The Japanese adopted Confucianism from the Chinese as a moral guidance principle. The Japanese believed that the Christians were taking away the Japanese faith; thus, during the Edo Period most of the Christians in Japan were exiled or executed. In order to cope with the westerns, the Japanese’s act of seclusion instilled that all Japanese in contact with the foreigners were banned and those that were abroad were executed once they stepped back in the Japanese territory. The banning of foreign contact had a direct influence on the Japanese faith and traditions. During the Meji Period of 1868 to 1912, the Japanese restored the Japanese faith by removing Buddhism from the national religion and replacing it with Shintoism. The traditional Shinto belief during the Imperial prestige was renewed with the State Shinto. Under the Meji rule of 1890, an Imperial Rescript of Education was established “forcing upon the people as the highest guiding principle of the national education and the moral life on the basis of the Emperor system” (Takeda 214). Taken from George Arrington’s

As stated before, the Japanese emperor during the Meji Period promoted the belief that he had divine right and made Shinto temple worship mandatory. Due to the complete westernization of Japan after the surrender to the American military, the Japanese were forced to remove the mandatory Imperial Rescript. Under the established Japanese constitution, Article 20 states that “freedom of religion is guaranteed to all…no person shall be compelled to take part in any religious act, celebration, rite or practice and the state, the state shall refrain from religious education or any other of the religious activity” (Japanese Const. Chap 3, art. 20). By mandating a religious education course would directly contradict with the rights of the Japanese people. Religious education should be a course in which the students would want to take. Forcing religious beliefs onto the students takes away the purpose of self-chosen faith for the students. Although having such a course does not necessarily mean that the Japanese government would be influenced to re-establish the nationalistic government prior to World War II, having such a long history of imperial rule and a country influenced by Shintoism worship the Japanese people would be wary of the