| 1-Religion in Japan
Article 20 of the Constitution of Japan declares “the liberty
of religion” and “the separation of religion and politics”, which means that any
religious group shall possess a particular power on neither the nation nor the
politics.
In general, the Japanese can make a free choice of which
religion and the ritual they follows.
There are two main religions in Japan. One is Buddhism, which
was introduced into Japan in the 6th century. It account for 70% of the
population; 78,000,000 in number. The other is Shintoism, which has been
prevalent in Japan from early times. It accounts for 80% of the populaion;
89,000,000 people. This indicates the tendency of the Japanese following several
religions at the same time.
They usually conform to Shintoism at celebrations
of birth or marriage, and Buddhism at such rites as funeral or Hoji, the
memorial service.
The 19th century saw the popoularity of various new
religions like Tenrikyo, Reyukai, or Risshokosekai, but these are merely
branches of Buddhism and Shintoism.
In addition, the Christianity and Islamic religions are also
present. Christianity was introduced into Japan in 1549, and now accounts for
only 1% of the populaton.
Islam takes up an even smaller population. Islamic groups in
Japan say that there are only about 3,000 Japanese registered as Muslims.
2-The arrival of Islam and it’s spread through
Japan Islam, which is less popular than other religion like Christianity or
Buddhism, has arrived only about one century ago and didn’t propagate as rapidly
and vastly as it did in the Southeast Asian countries. This is why there are
still very few people who have been converted to Islam |
