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Visiting Religious Places for Prayer in Japan: How Does Religious Identity Affect Religious Behavior?

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Review of Religious Research

Abstract

This paper examines how religious identity is associated with religious behavior in Japan. Prior research suggests that ritual practices rather than doctrines and theology are more important for Japanese religiousness. While many studies discuss various ritual behaviors in Japan, few researchers adopted statistical analysis to explore the Japanese practice of visiting religious places for prayer. Moreover, although prior United States-based research has demonstrated that religious identity is associated with religious behavior, little is known about whether such an association exists in Japan. In this study, I analyze a nationally representative sample of Japanese adults and examine whether the subjective importance of religious identity is associated with the frequency of visiting places such as temples, shrines, or churches for prayer. The results show that there is a bivariate relationship between religious identity importance and the frequency of visiting for prayer. Multivariate analyses reveal that religious identity importance is positively associated with visiting even when controlling for religious affiliation and other demographic attributes. Moreover, the results indicate that religious affiliations (Buddhism, other religions) are positively associated with visiting. However, the effect of other religions is much stronger than that of Buddhism. Given the existing scholarship on Japanese religiousness, the findings suggest that the behavioral implication of religious identity could differ by religious affiliation. Overall, this study extends prior research by empirically demonstrating the substantial role of religious identity for religious ritual behavior in Japan and further advances our theoretical understanding of Japanese religiousness.

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Notes

  1. Using the traditional Buddhism category does not mean to dismiss the diversity of Buddhists within this category. Each sect within traditional Buddhism has its own historical tradition (Eliot 2014).

  2. The percentages of these religious groups as reported by Roemer (2012a) are based on the self-reports of respondents who participated in large-scale national surveys. Some scholars note that the percentages of the adherents of new religions are much higher (Kisala 2006; Prohl 2012). These higher percentages appear to be reported by religious organizations (see endnote 6 in Roemer (2009)).

  3. Kamakura is an hour’s train journey from Tokyo and it used to be the capital of Japan during the Kamakura period (1135–1333) (Kawano 2005).

  4. A relative lack of attention to religious affiliations as predictors of religious behaviors may come from the not-so-abundant availability of survey data and the overall tendency of Japanese religiousness that does not emphasize “affiliation” with organized religion (Roemer 2012a). Roemer (2009, 2012a) empirically examined the predictors of religious affiliation; thus, a quantitative analysis of “religious affiliation as predictors” should also be beneficial.

  5. Shimazono (2004) notes that social relationships of the adherents of new religions tend to be close as there are more and—more frequent—opportunities for local gatherings than other religions and some religious groups utilize mass media to maintain their religious activities.

  6. The ISSP data were made available by the Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung, Koeln. Please see the Web site for more information at the following URL: http://www.issp.org/.

  7. Because the available data only provide an aggregated category, it is not possible to explore specific religions within Other religion.

  8. The results of supplementary analyses using different residential area categories are not substantially different from those reported in the current paper.

  9. The percentage of each religious group are as follow: no religion (59.54%), Buddhism (35.72%), Shinto (2.02%), Christianity (1.21%), and other religions (1.51%).

  10. As noted earlier, Roemer (2010a) examined the bivariate association between religious identity and other ritual behaviors.

  11. As noted in the Methods section, “other religions” in the main analysis includes Shinto, Christianity, and Other religion. The supplementary analyses (Table 3) suggest that Shinto behaves similarly with Buddhism. “Other religions” vis-à-vis Buddhism in this context may well be mostly about Christianity and Other religion, which could possibly include new religions.

  12. In supplemental analysis, I regressed the subjective importance of religious identity on religious affiliations. The results show that while Buddhism and other religions are positively associated with religious identity importance (p < 0.01), the effects of other religions on religious identity importance is much larger than that of Buddhists (p < 0.01).

  13. The National Survey of the Japanese Elderly offers longitudinal data with samples from only older people. These data unfortunately do not include a measure of religious identity, although they include an item for religious affiliation.

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful for invaluable comments from Jane D. McLeod and Peggy A. Thoits on earlier drafts of this manuscript. I also thank Peter Fogarty for his helpful suggestions, and the editor and anonymous reviewers of Review of Religious Research for their useful suggestions and assistance with this paper.

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  1. Faculty of Pharmacy, Keio University, 4-1-1 Hiyoshi Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 223-8521, Japan

    Ryotaro Uemura

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Uemura, R. Visiting Religious Places for Prayer in Japan: How Does Religious Identity Affect Religious Behavior?. Rev Relig Res 62, 45–65 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13644-019-00389-8

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