Blog Essay- Japan Religiously Revised

http://wittstudent.blogspot.com/2007/11/religion.html

Japan, with both Shinto and Buddhism as national religions appears to be a very peaceful country to foreigners, if not all, at least in the religious facet of the country. As a matter of the fact, the tolerance of Shinto and Buddhism allows Japanese to accept and adopt various beliefs, gods and lifestyles from all over the world. We hear about (and even watched in class too) true life stories of the Japanese people in general who visit shrines once or twice a year to practice Shinto, have a western Christian-style wedding at church and end their lives in a Buddhist funeral.
However regardless of the flexibility of religions that this country proudly offers, a lot of people, young generation in particular, are not religious at all and rather indifferent towards different beliefs and practices. They are simply not interested in religions, which, as a result, caused a lack of knowledge and shallow performance of even one certain religion. Maybe it's this ignorance of the people, rather than co-operation of different religions that has brought what seems to be peace and harmony.
Furthermore, in the West, where having a faith is as important as having a thought, religions can be very political and therefore can be used as a means of achieving and managing power. Whereas in the East, religions seem to be more emotionally and spiritually involved within people's lives. In this regard, imposing certain belief on someone can also include some kind of power and control, possible to create an argument amongst individuals in the western socities. However due to the nature of religion that the belief is pychologically influential, it is regarded as a sensitive topic, especially to the people in the collectivistic Japanese soceity. Consequently it is reasonable to guess that it is shaped into such a way that different religions were organized to harmonize with each other from a social and cultural aspect of Japan.

Another point of my argument lies on the question whether it is possible at all to have all the different religions living in peace with each other. Japan also did have a history of oppressing and conflicting with new foreign religions, including Christianity. Even now, the population of Christianity remains surprisingly low, suggesting the influence of the past still lingers on until thesedays. It seems more accurate to say that Shinto and Buddhism are open and accepting only mainly towards each other as the values of each one correspond with the other and with the Japanese society.