Religion, State, and Political Culture in Japan

Implications for the Post-Secular World

Tokihisa Sumimoto

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781786605955
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Asian Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Japan had developed a secular civilization long before going through its modern period, characterized by the officially-sanctioned unification of nationalism and state-worship that reached its apotheosis during World War II, followed by the economic growth-oriented post-war period. While the relationship between religion and state has varied significantly over time, what has been consistently observed throughout Japan's history is the absence of religions that are socially influential but independent from the state, or the absence of a dualistic relationship between religion and state. The kind of political ethos that should underpin democratic principles such as the rule of law and human rights has remained underdeveloped.

This book examines the concept of "reconstructive postmodernism," a perspective that has emerged from a normative approach to international relations that emphasizes the need to democratize and humanize the secularistic civilizations based on the reconstruction of spirituality and religiosity. Using this concept, this book offers a number of implications of its findings to the case of Japan and for global governance in the post-secular age more broadly.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Note for Readers
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Enduring Tensions Between Organized Religions and the State: Case Studies in Secularization and Modernization
• Chapter 2: Religion’s Place in Domestic and Foreign Policy: Case Studies from the Twentieth to Twenty-First Centuries
• Chapter 3: Transcendence and the State: Japanese Religion from the Early Modern Period to the Nineteenth Century
• Chapter 4: Modern Japan’s Political Culture: Ultranationalism and Comparison of Ideas
• Chapter 5: Occupation, Political Reforms, and Religion
• Chapter 6: Religious Decline in Postwar Japan and the Cost of Contemporary Japan’s Religious Culture
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• About the Author