How were/are individual freedoms balanced with collective goals of the state or society in modern Japan? Define and compare the characteristics of religious freedom in Japan before 1945, from 1945-1995, and after 1995?

The phrase 'religious freedom' can be differentiated through interpretation by the individual and the

State. The meaning is not only subjected to a preferred interpretation but to the time and location in which the

government allows individuals to openly practice their chosen religion. Japan's history has intertwined

governmental politics with religion to such extremes that the history should be overviewed by dividing the

timeline into before- 1945, 1945- 1995, and after 1995. Religious groups manufactured mythology to decree

divine origins of rule, fictional nationalistic stories to be taught as real history, and tales of the end of the

world to obtain obedience. The storytelling process enables fiction to merge with actual events, explain the

unknown, and develop a community's devotion through a shared culture. State hegemony requires a

nationalistic sense of citizenship that can be obtained and maintained through an agreed societal consensus.

Government laws reflect the agenda of the hegemonic process to stop foreign influence that threatens the

dominant political group in power and to promote a culturally familiar solution that follows an approved

governmental ideology. Modern Japan is caught in a post-Aum era in which religion impedes over individual

religious freedom and the State's agenda. The post-Aum era created a legal and moral imbalance between

government interference and individual freedom and privacy as a legal right. The idea that individual

religious freedom and the collective goals of the State can achieve a harmony impossible because the State's

main objective is to maintain control over the nation through the guise of protecting the nationalistic integrity

of Japan and the Japanese people.

The earliest recorded records of the rules of Japan come from both China and Korea. The written

records comment on how Japan (Wa) was lead by charismatic leaders. Third century names Himiko as the

female leader who led the area through magic. Other chieftain's were also credited with a gift for the magic of

healing, exorcism, and worship. The position of leadership required a strong leader who was able to provide

the agriculture community a structured belief system to maintain an early form of law and order. The Yamato

Clan claimed a right to rule over the land because of divine origins. The clan made a blood connection

through Ninigi, the first emperor of Japan, as being the grandson of the Goddess Amaterasu. This was also the

basis for legitimizing the emperor as the principle figure to conduct ceremonial rites as an official government

act of responsibility. This lasted "from the Taika Reform of 645 to the end of the Heian Period. It represented

the pinnacle in the relation between religion and state, an ideal in which the emperor and his ministers

performed rites according to a centralized liturgical calendar coordinating ritual at the place and in the

provinces to uphold and sustain the realm" (Hardacre). The calendar of events was necessary due to the

acknowledgement of Buddhism, Taoism, and Shinto being openly practiced by the people. The emperor

performed the difference religious rites but official did not declare allegiance to any as belonging to the State's

ideology.

Shinto as a patriotic and indigenous belief system established itself as a "duty to the state"

(Hardacre). The belief does not have an official doctrine to follow but the ideology but been shaped by the

government and by individuals. The concept "intimate immensity" (Bachelard) depends upon the individual

creating a personal interpretation of the space and internalizes the significant meaning the land offers a

particular person. Phenomenology is an individual process which makes the relationship between the

landscape and the human being an extremely personalized experience. The communion established between

the person and the land then becomes very personalized, a natural state, and sacred. The intimacy to the space

is being shaped and the meaning is defined by the individual. This religion in essence that the government

could make acceptable as official practice and one individuals in an agricultural based society would want to

follow.

The Edo Period (1600-1868) is under the rule of the Shogun who prefers people to follow the Buddhist

religion and Confucian teachings. It is also when Buddhism became, less foreign in origin over time, as more

acceptable than Christianity, which is completely foreign to Japan. Kaibara Ekken, Samurai scholar, who

followed the dominant, thought of the Tokugawa era of Confucianism. The upper classes believed the

Confucian ethics promoted the correct philosophy, social ordering, and pragmatic politic. The ethical path

encourages economic frugality, good business practices, hard work, and the importance of loyalty especially

to a hierarchical social ordering to who is in power. Unlike Christianity which was viewed as a threat by

leaders. The people attempting to practice this religion were slaughtered. The era forcibly suppressed the

practice of other religions that were not sanctioned by the State.

Boshin War (1868-1869) was the official reason for the creation of the Yasukuni Shrine during the

Meijing Period. It was to be a shrine to house the spirits of the Japanese soldiers. This war overthrew the

Shogunate and restored the emperor back in power. Emperor sanctified this Shinto shrine as one containing

political nationalistic connotations. Shinto became the nation's official religion. In 1945, end of World War II,

the Allies made political, social, and religious decisions for the nation of Japan. In 1947 the Allies officially

severed the relationship between Religion and State. The law made it possible to officially for an individual

to legally have government endorsed religious freedom. Many religions were allowed to operate without

interference or any restrictions from the government. Many religions also qualified for tax exempt status that

made many of these religions like a corporation with equity, assets, and financial resources.

"New Religious movements constitute particularly important cases. These groups not only offer

radical resistance to the dominant social order, they also sacrilege that resistance. The challenge these

movements pose is therefore fundamental in nature, as they threaten the logic and organizational forms

through which the dominant social order is maintained. At the same time these movements typically posses

few allies and consequently are vulnerable to imposition of social control. Given the challenge posed by the

movements, on the one side, and the imperative to maintain the existing social order, on the other side, the

likelihood of tension and conflict is considerable" (Bromley and Melton). Soka Gakkai opposed the

government in a time of war and developed a strong political base within the infrastructure of the

government."Soka Gakkai might threaten the post-war constitutional separation of religion and state"

(Reader). Aum Shinrikyo is a NRM that was able to secretly develop chemicals to use in terrorist actions

against the people and nation of Japan.

"Hegemony requires that ideological assertions become self-evident cultural assumptions. Its

effectiveness depends on subordinate people's accepting the dominate ideology as normal reality or common

sense" (Lull). Shinto in modern Japan is a man and nature concept which promotes a nationalistic ideology

and a spiritual communion with the environment. Yasukuni Shrine is a monument divided by religious and

political connotations. The shrine has come to symbolize to many individuals as a memorial to Japan's

military aggression, a placed defiled by spirits of war criminals, and the platform for Shinto as propaganda;

while others view the shrine as a place to remember the friends and family who died in past wars. The

significance the shrine had to the State during wartime changed for the younger generations who are distanced

by time from the historic motivations but also from the personal motivations to house the spirits of Japanese

lives lost during war. There is an open venue for people to display discourses.

"The term 'cult' (Japanese: Karuto) has entered the Japanese language with very similar meanings and

connotations to the English media use of the term. Thus, karuto in Japanese connotes a dangerous movement

run by a religious teacher (but whose real interests are power, money, and sex) and who "brainwashes" his

devotees" (Reader). The historic relationship between religion and government has moments of defined

limitations, censorship, and lack of individual freedoms to practice a religion completely. The post-Aum era

created legal sanctions by the government to restrict religious freedom with strong public support. The 'cult'

religions within Japan are labeled with this word to be deviant, foreign, and not Japanese in any way.

Religious groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Unification Movement have been labeled with the

negative connotation of being cults. Public consensus has openly sided with the governmental restrictions that

limit new religious movements in favor of the public good and safety. "Aum's continuing existence provides a

constant reminder to the Japanese public concerning the potential dangers that might come from certain kinds

of religious movements" (Reader).

References

Helen Hardacre, State and Religion in Japan, Nanzan Guide (274-288)

Helen Hardacre, Shinto and the State, 1868-1988

Richard Gardner, Nationalistic Shinto: A Child's Guide to Yasukuni Shrine

Tucker, Kaibara Ekken's Precepts on the Family

Ian Reader, Consensus Shattered: New Religious Movements in the Post-Aum Era

Ian Reader, Confrontation: Aum Shinrikyo Against the World

Ian Reader, Of Religion, Nationalism and Ideology: Analysing the Development of

Religious Studies in Japan

David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton, Violence and Religion in Perspective

James Lull, Hegemony

Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space