[Ronin4hire]

People have to make the distinction between Shintoism and Shinto.

Shintoism being the religion that the Meiji era government invented out of Shinto in order to "modernise". (In their attempt to modernise quickly and compete with the West Japan sought to at first emulate various Western models and took the idea of a monarchy backed up by the legitimacy of a state religion from the Europeans).

Shinto is a pre-modern set of traditions and beliefs but I wouldn't call it a religion.

If I remember correctly, for something to be called a religion by academic standards it has to have a founder, a holy book and a philosophy/ideology.

Shinto has none of that.

The majority of Japan is non-religious but many still observe Shinto traditions and some even have their own personal beliefs which stem from that.

If you ask Japanese people about the religion of Shinto in my experience (and this is backed up by my religious studies teacher that I had in Japan), the Meiji era religion that was created will probably spring to mind rather than the beliefs of their ancestors.

Bottom line.. as I understand it you can only be called Shintoist if you believe the Emperor of Japan to be a God etc.

Having a belief in spirits which the pre-modern Japanese had will not make you a Shintoist in the eyes of Japanese people. It will just make you someone with personal beliefs in spirits.