Dominant Religion in Japan?
 

A lot of Japanese are actually both Buddhist and Shinto, making those two religions the largest ones in Japan. Christanity is also present in Japan and the number of Christians is on the rise.

The dominant religion is "I don't know" followed by atheism. Christianity may be on the rise, but still less than 1% of Japanese call themselves Christian.

"I don't know"? Like they actually don't know?

In my experience many were performing different shinto rituals, praying at the temples etc, but they were pretty laid back about it. Not hard-core followers of the religion, if you know whattamean.

From what I've heard, it's just part of their culture, and it also happens to be a religion.

Generally they are not religious but follow religious customs etc.

Koreans are a lot more religious.

Yes christianity is increasing and of late so is preaching in the streets by Japanese.

Yeah that's kinda what I mean, it's a part of life so they may pray a temples etc. without considering themselves really religious.

Yes, like they actually don't know. In Japan you are born as a Shinto, marry as a Christian and die as a Buddhist.

Precisely.

Interestingly, the Japanese say that they are Shintouist at life, but Buddhist at death. Most religious festivals like coming-of-the-age ceremonies and weddings are Shintou, while funerals are Buddhist. The Japanese follow these two religions at the same time because Buddhism has no god, whereas Shintou has gods called kami. Most Japanese nowadays are not particularly religious, especially the young generation.

Oops...you are right, I had that backwards...I fixed it.

But I would add that I don't think the previous generation was very religious, either. I know no Japanese adults that call themselves devout or even practicing Buddhists or Shinto.

Eastern Religions aren't quite as dogmatic and strict as Western ones.

The way that I sometimes explain it is that 'it's perfectly fine for a Buddhist to also be a Christian, but it's not fine for a Christian to also be a Buddhist'.

My door is regularly knocked on by Jehovah's Witnesses, and there are a couple of young white male Mormons who I see commuting through my town by bicycle almost every day. Christianity is definitely on the rise in Japan.

Used to be. Look up 'Kirishitan'.
It's not like that anymore though.

Oh great. I just lost a tiny bit of love towards Japan. ):

I'd still love to go there, though. But I'm sick of religion. That's where all the problems start.


Pastafarian for life~~:rheart:

Love is unconditional ;)

There still aren't many Christians in Japan, though... Christians are a serious minority in Japan.

Huh. That actually sounds like a really good way to live... Just taking bits and pieces from different religions and not being a hardcore follower.

I wouldn't worry too much. Just because Christianity is on the rise in the land of the rising sun, I doubt that means there's a bunch of slightly overweight Japanese men with guitars and combovers singing in the streets about how cool Jesus is.

I could be wrong, but I hope I'm not, for everyone's sake. And like some others said, it's a minority over there, not like the majority stateside.

I heard the number of Mormons is increasing in Japan because they have some many damn missionaries there.

Hello.
I am a Japanese.
About the Japanese religion, probably it is an ancient Roman to do the understanding that is deeper than you(Monotheism).

The Shinto is polytheism, and Buddhism is philosophy.
Roman believed in gods of Rome and discussed Greek philosophy.
They may easily understand outlook on Japanese religion.

And the Japanese avoids Christianity like a Roman disliked Christianity.
This is because it is convinced that it is an obstinate superstition.

Christ is one of them in the polytheism for a Japanese.

Japan has proverb.

"God left me and different God came"

You're a straight up Communist,saying there can't be Christians in Japan. They wouldn't want you to go and live there,that's for sure.

I have to say,I'm amazed by this lightning censorship of religious discussion.

And you're a straight up idiot replying to a comment made over 3 years ago....

I didn't bump it,how was I supposed to know? I have a life,I'm not gonna check every date. Don't know if everybody here can necessarily say the same.

Wow it's so hard to check the date of a post you are replying to!! Those of us who do must waste so much time that we couldn't possibly have lives as well.
Apart from actually missing the date of the post your reply also made absolutely no sense. The person didn't even say anything about there can't be christians in Japan. They were just a little unhappy to learn that christianity was supposedly on the rise in the country. Now who wouldn't be unhappy to hear that? :rolleyes:

Me. Possibly more people on here who don't want some idiots to have a go at them. He was saying everyone should be an athiest like him,which is wrong. If I hated all athiests I wouldn't talk to anyone. Now Japan is a very religious country,that's a fact,and you probably could be an athiest there but most people in Japan do not have a pessimistic world view and would be a bit weirded out by it. So only some divorced or homeless people are likely to agree with you.

For jehovah's wetniess are they japanese or white

I think they must be,I think they tend to stick to Buddhist/Shinto,occasionally there might be a Japanese Christian or Baha'i. I had a Baha'i teacher at Junior School.

When I was in Japan I had both knock on my door. I've always hated door to door sales people.

Strongly religious groups, including Christianity, tend to be viewed as suspicious and cult-like.
In general, religion in Japan is more just a series of customs than beliefs. I don't know anyone who is strongly religious. Mostly it is a go-through-the-motions sort of thing. I have encountered a small handful of Christians in Japan... About half of those had "converted" because they needed to be Christian to teach in a Christian school, and the other half were of the born-again want to save your soul types.
Neither were or are common.

Please note, there is no reason to offer your opinions on religions in this thread. The question has been answered (a very long time ago, in fact) so I am closing this.