What does the Japanese people believe in? Japan, like any other country also have religions but it’s kind of different. Is this true? Well, let’s find out.
Basically, in Japan, there are several components that made up the Japanese religion tradition. The first one being Shinto, followed up by Buddhism and Confucianism.
These three are the earliest religions that are in Japan and up until now, they are still practiced by the people of Japan.
Later in time, rose Christianity and other religions but they have only minor movements in Japan. As of 2018, 69% of the population practises Shinto, with 66.7% practise Buddhism, and 6.2% practise other religions. Try to guess the percentage of the population that practises Islam..
#1 Shinto
Not many people know what is a Shinto religion. To the Japanese, it is a religion that is as old as the Japan itself. Shinto means the way of the gods and in this religion, there are no sacred scriptures.
There are also no sculptures at first as the practitioners worship natural things like stones, mountains or tree. But as they’re influenced by Buddhism, they later came to include paintings and sculptures of human-like Shinto deities
Shinto gods or also known as ‘kami’ are sacred spirits of the nature that take forms of life like rain, mountains, rivers, and fertility. These are all important concepts of life. It is believed that when people pass away, they turn into ‘kami’, and extraordinary people turn into “kami” who are then revered at certain shrines.
It is also believed that all humans are considered as good and all the evil are caused by evil spirits. This is the religion with highest population although some Japanese are considered as atheist.
#2 Buddhism
Although Shinto is the biggest religion in Japan, but later in time, in year 525, Buddhism rose in Japan. Buddhism in Japan started out when the Korea sent missionary to Japan with gifts like the image of Buddha, sacred texts and several ritual objects.
This is totally different from what the Japanese has practised in Shinto and thus created political struggles between the pro and the anti-Buddhists group.
But eventually, Buddhism prevailed and became a new religion aside from Shinto. Buddhism has resulted in advanced developments and technologies in almost every aspect of Japanese life.
Both Shinto and Buddhism are two religions with the highest percentage of population in Japan. They are considered as two sides of the same coin. Eventhough two thirds of Japanese people now consider themselves as Buddhists, but the religion itself has little impact on the average Japanese person’s daily life.
#3 Other religions.
Aside from Shinto and Buddha, other religions in Japan plays a minor role in Japanese life. In the whole world, Christian is the largest religion with the second one being Islam. But in Japan, the percentage of religious group for Christian is around 1.5%. There are a lot of other religions in Japan but let’s focus on Islam that only has 0.5% of population.
Islam is a minority among the religions in Japan. Up until now, there has been around 230,000 total of Muslims population in Japan. Being a minority living in Japan, the Muslims faced struggles harder than any other people. They are judged from the perspective of their clothes, practises, Islamic culture and others.
It’s hard for a muslim to even secure a job her in Japan. And if they have a job, they are forbid to pray during lunch time. As we can see from the numbers of population of Muslims in Japan, it’s safe to say that majority of Japanese people have never met muslims. Though maybe some of them have communicated or interacted with muslims.
Read more about:
- Are they muslims in Korea?- What no one tells you
- Have you ever heard of what Koreans think about Muslim?
To even live in Japan is considered difficult, what about to practise the teachings of Islam? or even spread da’wah? Yes, it’s hard but it’s not impossible.
That’s why, MyFundAction laid out an initiative to support Islamic activities in Japan through few campaigns and projects.
But, these projects need supports from you to be successful. Are we willing to let Islam remain a minority in Japan? with your support InsyaAllah, Islam can bloom in Japan.
There’s more about Muslims living in Japan. Of course there are pros and cons being a Muslim in Japan. Surely but slowly we know that Islam is likely to grow in the land of Japan eventhough the main religions in Japan is not Islam.
