In order to study the ongoing interactions between con-
temporary society and religions, new scholarly organizations
were established in the 1990s. The most notable is the Japa-
nese Association for the Study of Religion and Society
(JASRS), founded in 1993. The International Institute for
the Study of Religion (IISR), originally set up in 1953, was
also reorganized in 1993, along with the Religious Informa-
tion Research Center (RIRC).
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, popular is-
sues in the mainstream of the Japanese study of religion in-
clude religion in practice (seikatsu no shu ̄kyo ̄), globalization/
localization and religion, religion and violence, and the con-
cept of religion and Orientalism. New impulses are emerging
from the question of whether the study of religion should be
more socially engaged rather than assuming neutrality. The
responses to this question range from critical approaches fol-
lowing Saidian-Foucaultian reflections about knowledge and
power to religious approaches following Nakazawa’s attempt
to guide the individual’s spiritual quest.
Last but not least, all Japanese universities have recently
been asked to reform themselves structurally to become more
globally competitive. This movement is represented by the
Twenty-First Century Center of Excellence (COE) program,
a funding system that rewards selected universities and re-
search institutions. The program is administered by the
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science with the support
of the Japanese government. It encourages research that will
directly contribute to society, which has promoted the idea
of applied sciences even among traditional humanistic disci-
plines; the study of bioethics is one example within the field
of religious studies. With this new focus, the study of religion
is once again facing a challenge to serve public and national
interests without losing its critical stance.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary sources in English
Anesaki Masaharu. Buddhist Art in Its Relation to Buddhist Ideals,
with Special Reference to Buddhism in Japan. Boston, 1915,
reprint, New York, 1978.
Anesaki Masaharu. History of Japanese Religion, with Special Refer-
ence to the Social and Moral Life of the Nation. London, 1930,
reprint, 1995.
Bellah, Robert N. Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial
Japan. New York, 1957; reprint, London, 1985.
Kato ̄ Genchi. A Study of Shinto: The Religion of the Japanese Na-
tion. London, 1926; reprint, 1971. Genchi Kato ̄ (1873–
1965) initiated the study of Shinto ̄ from the perspective of
comparative religion.
Kishimoto Hideo. “An Operational Definition of Religion.”
Numen 8 (1961): 236–240.
Kishimoto Hideo. “Religiology.” Numen 14 (1967): 81–86.
Tominaga Nakamoto. Emerging from Meditation. Translated and
edited by Michael Pye. London, 1990.
Uno Enku ̄. Religious Rites and Ceremonies Concerning Rice-
Planting and Eating in Malaysia. Tokyo, 1942. Enku ̄ Uno
(1885–1949) is one of the early Japanese scholars of religion.
This ethnographical essay has its background in Japanese im-
perialism in Asia.
Yabuki– Keiki, editor. Rare and Unknown Chinese Manuscript Re-
mains of Buddhist Literature Discovered in Tun-Huang Col-
lected by Sir Aurel Stein and Preserved in the British Museum.
Tokyo, 1930. Keiki Yabuki (1879–1939), himself belonging
to the Jo ̄doshu ̄ Buddhist tradition, was one of the pioneers
who incorporated the study of religion into Buddhist studies.
He is famous for his studies on the teaching of the three
stages, but his works are not available in English.
Yanagawa Keiichi. “Matsuri no kankaku.” Shu ̄kyo ̄ kenkyu ̄ 49
(1976): 223–242. Available in English as “The Sensation of
Matsuri” from http://www2.kokugakuin.ac.jp/ijcc/wp/cpjr/
matsuri/yanagawa.html.
Yanagita Kunio. About Our Ancestors: The Japanese Family System.
Tokyo, 1970; reprint, Tokyo, 1988.
Yanagita Kunio. The Legends of Tono. Tokyo, 1975.
Secondary sources in Western languages
Isomae Junichi. “The Discursive Position of Religious Studies in
Japan: Masaharu Anesaki and the Origins of Religious
Studies.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 14, no.
1 (2002): 21–46.
Japanese Association for Religious Studies. Religious Studies in
Japan. Tokyo, 1959. A commemorative volume from the
Ninth International Congress for the History of Religions.
Kawahashi Noriko, and Masako Kuroki. “Editors’ Introduction:
Feminism and Religion in Contemporary Japan.” Japanese
Journal of Religious Studies 30, no. 3/4 (2003): 207–216.
This entire volume is dedicated to feminist and gender
studies of religion in Japan.
Matsumoto Shigeru. Motoori Norinaga 1730–1801. Cambridge,
U.K., 1975; reprint, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1995.
Prohl, Inken. Die “spirituellen Intellektuellen” und das New Age in
Japan. Hamburg, Germany, 2000. A critique of Shinichi
Nakazawa and other popular religious-spiritual scholars such
as Yasuo Yuasa.
Pye, Michael. “Japanese Studies of Religion.” Religion 4 (1975):
55–72.
Pye, Michael. “Modern Japan and the Science of Religions.”
Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 15, no. 1 (2003):
1–27. This article, along with “Religious Studies in Japan”
by Tamaru, provides a general view of the Japanese study of
religion, with a special focus on its prehistory.
Reader, Ian. “Dichotomies, Contested Terms, and Contemporary
Issues in the Study of Religion.” 2004. Available from http://
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/discussionpapers/
Reader2.html. This article touches on the concept of religion
in Japan in light of recent theoretical discussions.
Rotermund, Hartmut O. “Les sciences des religions au Japon.” In
Le Grand Atlas des Religions. Paris, 1988.
Shimazono Susumu. “The Study of Religion and the Tradition of
Pluralism.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 9, no. 1
(1982–1983): 77–88. This article discusses the influence of
religious pluralism on the Japanese study of religion.
Snodgrass, Judith. Presenting Japanese Buddhism to the West: Ori-
entalism, Occidentalism, and the Columbian Exposition.STUDY OF RELIGION: THE ACADEMIC STUDY OF RELIGION IN JAPAN 8779