[MMM]

cuonglhvt, slow down. You have asked a lot of questions in a few posts (and you should probably just edit your first post rather than keep piling on more posts). Have a little patience and people will take a stab at some answers.

Yes, children born in 2008 will be the year of the rat.

I don't have the impression Japanese people are upset about using the Western calendar. For years, Japan uses both the 2008 year and the Japanese yearly calendar (mostly for official and legal documents).

Buddhism is prevelant in Japan, but I wouldn't go so far as to say "most Japanese are buddhists". If you ask 100 Japanese what religion they are, 90+ will say "I don't know".