You're entirely right. But what I was getting at was that a statement such as Shinagawa's would hardly be considered "so judgmental" by most listeners in Japan.

And like I said about the way I take "underdeveloped" to mean, not as unfinished but as non-concrete. Most religions have a pretty set-in-stone this-is-what-you-must-do-and-think, whereas in contrast Shintoism seems to have not developed such an attitude.
I personally think most religions are overdeveloped and that Shintoism is just right, but who am I to argue against some one with a differing opinion, like most Japanese I wouldn't get so upset or even care enough to form more than a few minutes of thought on the matter.:vsign:

RealJames, I usually think you are pretty on-the-money, and at least you roll with punches, but I think you are off here.

You are telling me that what has been the national belief system of Japan for over 1000 years, the only domestic belief system followed in the country, would be generally accepted as "underdeveloped"?

Non-concrete does not mean the same thing as "underdeveloped". They are two completely different ideas in terms of meaning as well as level of negativity.

Would a teacher use the word "underdeveloped" to describe a student to her parent?

state shinto is now just Jinja Shinto. No shintoist really believes that the emperor is divine (since he admitted he was not after ww2). Neither do most shinto believe that lack of emperor worship compromises the lable of "shintoist". Shinto just refers to any belief set that has japanese paganism as its foundation.

I see. OK I can accept that.

I still have a problem with the term Shintoist to describe a person though. It implies adherence to a philosophy or ideology which Shinto doesn't have.

But I can accept Shinto to describe particular beliefs in a subjective manner.

As usual, I think we are in agreement with each other. :vsign:
Like I said "I personally think most religions are overdeveloped and that Shintoism is just right". So no, I wouldn't call Shintoism underdeveloped, but I wouldn't be surprised if anyone here perceived it that way.
I mean to say that I can understand how some people might see Shintoism to be underdeveloped relative to other mainstream religions.

On a slight side note:
I often have conversations about religion with people here and love how blunt and honest they are about their feelings of different religions because the taboo of talking about them isn't there. It's actually quite fun. :)

Tell me about it. I'm fan of the works of rationalists like Dawkins and Hitchens.

Can't discuss things like that in here though.. against the rules.

Yeah I often raise points made by both of them and they are very well received by even the most religious people here.
I honestly think both Dawkins and Hitchens are a little extreme with their words and what they accept but I understand that it's as a reflection to the equally strong words coming from the religious side of the debate.

I find both atheists and deists in Japan to be a lot more level-headed and also accepting of each other. Which honestly is so refreshing, if for no other reason than for good discussions that don't turn emotional and defensive.