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Democracy of Religion in Japan

Democracy of Religion in Japan


In order to deal with religious deviants and bring all groups into conformity with the state-defined orthodoxy, the Diet passed the Religious Organizations Law (shukyo-dantai ho) in 1939. This empowered the state to disband any religious organization whose teachings were in conflict with the Imperial Way (kodo). In addition, the Peace Preservation Law (chian'iji ho) was revised in 1941 in order to address the subversive potential of various religious groups. Designed initially in 1925 to control radical socialists and the communist movement, this law prohibited the organization of any association or group that denied the right to private property or sought to overthrow the national polity (kokutai). The revised version, however, was extended to suppress a wide variety of dangerous ideas (kiken shiso) that showed disrespect toward the imperial household and its shrines or were in conflict with the national polity.

From the beginning, as David Reid points out, the "Kyodan rested on an uneasy combination of 'sacred' and 'secular' motivation." At least for its first four years of existence, the 'secular' demands of the state proved to be the most dominating influence. Writing in the midst of this difficult period, D. C.

Holtom suggested that the overall weakness of Christianity made this pattern of response almost inevitable:
"The Christian movement in Japan today is still too weak, in numbers as well as influence, to take more than a subordinate position when powerful forces in the state set about turning all the resources of the national life into directions that cut across those along which the Christian church has traveled. Under the circumstances the church has only two roads open to it: persecution and martyrdom or compromise and accommodation. The Japanese Christian church has chosen the latter". (Hamish, 1963-94-96)

The demographic changes related to postwar industrialization helped to create a more favorable environment for Christian missionary activities, since Christian organizations were largely concentrated in metropolitan areas (unlike Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples). In addition to these political and demographic changes, a large-scale crisis of meaning had been created by the wartime devastation and the shock of defeat. The ideology that had united and propelled Japan as a nation since the 1930s disintegrated with Japan's surrender. Christianity and various new religions that emerged from the war's aftermath provided one means of coping with this crisis. (Jansen, 2002, 151-56)

While the emphasis on the Emperor's sovereignty had fatal consequences for the Christian church and its relation to Buddhism, another aspect of the Constitution caught the immediate attention of both Buddhists and Christians, the guarantee of religious freedom in Article 28 of the Constitution: Japanese subjects shall, within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not antagonistic to their duties as subjects, enjoy freedom of religious belief.

The question of religious freedom had been a continuous problem for Christians. The notice boards against Christianity had been removed in 1873, but no official document had declared that Christianity was recognized. Several drafted laws and regulations had suggested freedom for the Christian faith, and since the end of the 1870s the press had repeatedly advocated the freedom of religion as a natural right. In 1878 several prominent Christians had appealed to the Ministry of Home Affairs for freedom of faith. Ten years later, in 1888, another group of Christians presented a written petition to the Senate (Genroin) concerning public recognition of Christianity; the petition had stirred much discussion in the press, but no official reaction was given at that time. Article 28 of the Constitution was, therefore, generally understood as an official recognition of Christianity; and those who still opposed Christianity had apparently lost their legal basis. The churches welcomed the new Constitution with thanksgiving services and prayer meetings all over the country on the day of its promulgation. The German missionaries Spinner and Schmiedel extended a letter of thanks to the Emperor, through Count Okuma, for the public recognition of Christianity. In Tokyo a joint meeting of the Christian churches was held in the Kosei Building where the hall was decorated all over with red lamps and greenery. The front wall was decorated with the words "Freedom of Religion" and "Long Live the Emperor!" On the side wall the whole of Article 28 was written. It was also read aloud during the service, and prayers and addresses drew attention to the new situation of the church. A picture of the rising sun in the front of the hall suggested that the Constitution introduced a new day for the Christian church. It was characterized as a "Second Restoration," an "unprecedented happening," or "the basis for the new Japan." (Gerard, 1997-330-39)

The immediate Buddhist reaction generally seemed to support the view that the Constitution introduced an official permission for the practice of Christianity instead of the previous tacit approval. The new religious policy of the government was further substantiated by the fact that the chief abbots of the powerful Shin Buddhist head temples in Kyoto and other Buddhist dignitaries, who expected to be present at the promulgation ceremony of the Constitution, were not invited. From the point of view of the government, this was in accordance with the policy of separation between politics and religion, but the Buddhists resented the decision as an obvious expression of their loss of status. (Darley, 1946, 32-35)

The Buddhists, therefore, soon began to question the meaning of religious freedom, and some even advocated political sanctions. It was, for instance, argued that the Constitution would not be valid until the Diet had been convened the following year, and that the interval of one year would provide them with ample opportunity to engage in political suppression of Christianity. The most common argument, however, was to criticize the Christians for failing to take account of the obvious limitations of Article 28, expressed in the words, "within limits not prejudicial to peace and order, and not antagonistic to their duties as subjects." The Buddhists emphasized these conditional clauses so strongly that they generally concluded that Christians did not enjoy the freedom of religious faith defined in the Constitution. For instance, it was argued that the Christian "superstition" in a "prejudiced God" naturally prejudiced Christians against the creeds of the Emperor and the Japanese people, and thus created disharmony in their relations to family and neighbors; that if Christianity caused religious strife, it was the duty of the political authorities to intervene; that Christianity exercised destructive influence on the state and was incompatible with loyalty to the Emperor. Such arguments resulted in a strategy designed to make Buddhism a national religion or "state-recognized religion," (Bellah, 2000, 291-98) while Christianity, on the other hand, would merely be tolerated as a private religious institution, provided it did not disturb peace and order or hinder its members from performing their duties as subjects.

It should be mentioned that the Buddhists were not alone in their emphasis on the limitations of religious freedom. To a certain degree they were supported by official comments on the problem. And further, while public opinion around 1889 supported the view that Article 28 was a public recognition of Christianity, the development in the following years put more emphasis on the conditional character of this recognition. As we shall see, the conflict between Christianity and the national polity eventually became so acerbated that Article 28 failed to provide the necessary guarantee for religious freedom. (Yanaihara, 1948, 171-82)

Japanese Buddhists as a fatal and crucial year, in which the future of Buddhism would be decided, regarded the year 1890. The first general election was held on July 1, 1890, and the Diet was convened on November 25 the same year. Inoue Enryo's apprehensions about the political changes have already been mentioned, and Buddhists generally shared his feelings that this was the "dawn" when the unrealistic dreams would vanish and the true colors of reality appear. What mattered now was real power to engage in the desperate struggle in the political arena. (Anesaki, 1993, 45-53)

The result was not merely that a religious element was added to the political strife. A further consequence was that the atmosphere of the political world, which had become increasingly violent, fatally influenced the religious world. The political fervor became so strong among Buddhists that Buddhist leaders began to worry about its negative consequences within their own camp. The first Conference of Buddhist Chief Abbots in 1890 took up the problem of political and social disruption as one of the central issues, and appealed to Buddhist priests to keep aloof from politics and to avoid using temples for political meetings; the priests in the provinces especially were admonished to do their utmost to establish harmony. (Najita, 2001, 120-27)

With the establishment of religious freedom by the Occupation Forces in 1946, many groups left the Kyodan to reestablish their prewar denominational identities. The most significant departures were the Anglican Episcopal Church, the Lutheran Church, plus numerous Baptist and smaller Evangelical and Holiness churches. In addition to these reestablished prewar denominations, numerous other evangelical churches from North America and Europe responded to General Macarthur’s call for missionary reinforcements to join in building a new Japan. (Burkman, 1994-143-216) Between 1949 and 1953 over fifteen hundred new missionaries arrived in Japan, and the churches began to show signs of recovery. The development of Buddhism after 1873 formed a sharp contrast to the successful expansion of Christianity. Buddhism's inner weakness and the anti-Buddhist trend of the late Tokugawa and early Meiji periods had rendered Buddhism impoverished and powerless; and the government and the intellectual elite generally ignored Buddhism as an outdated superstition that could only appeal to the ignorant masses. The tacit recognition of Christianity represented another blow, and the predominant Westernizing trend intensified the Buddhist sense of crisis. Apart from a few trends that will be commented on later, Buddhism found itself working against the tide.

Officially, Buddhism maintained a certain privileged position; the government used it for disseminating the nationalistic Great Doctrine (Daikyo), and employed Buddhist priests along with Shinto priests as "moral instructors." (Helen, 1989, 119-33) The Great Doctrine was, however, dominated by Shinto; and progressive Buddhists, who welcomed the new ideas of religious freedom and separation between religion and state, wanted freedom from government supervision. Shin Buddhism was in 1875 granted permission to separate from the Academy of the Great Doctrine, and the academy itself was abolished later the same year. This opposition was a sign of renewal in Buddhism; it brought Buddhism one-step toward independence and reform of its methods of propagation. (Davis, 1976, 5-40)
On the other hand, the Buddhist understanding of religious freedom did not seem to imply any readiness to recognize Christianity on equal terms with other religions. The entire system of moral instructors, which gave the Buddhist and Shinto priests a semiofficial status and authority, was finally abandoned in 1884, and the supervision of religious affairs was transferred to the religious authorities of the respective sects. Thus the priests finally lost in people's eyes the legal authority they had assumed until then; and the change was welcomed by the Christians as a weakening of the position of Buddhism and as a preliminary step toward placing Christianity on equal footing with Buddhism and Shinto.








References

Anesaki Masaharu. History of Japanese Religion: With Special Reference to the Social and Moral Life of the Nation. Rutland, Vermont, & Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1993. 45-53
Bellah Robert N. Tokugawa Religion: The Values of Pre-Industrial Japan. Boston: Beacon Press, 2000. 291-98
Burkman Thomas W. "The Urakami Incidents and the Struggle for Religious Toleration in Early Meiji Japan." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1 (June-Sept. 1994): 143-216.
Darley Downs, Effects of Wartime Pressures on Churches and Missions in Japan (New York: Union Theological Seminary, Master of Sacred Theology Thesis, 1946), 32-35
Davis Winston. "The Civil Theology of Inoue Tetsujiro." Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 3 (March 1976): 5-40.
Gerard Dekker, Donald Luidens, and Rodger Rice, eds., Rethinking Secularization: Reformed Encounters with Modernity (New York: University Press of America, 1997). 330-39
Hamish Ion A. Modern Japan and Shinto Nationalism: A Study of Present-Day Trends in Japanese Religions. Reflecting on the Protestant movement in Japan, Taiwan, and Korea between 1865 and 1945. (New York: Paragon, 1963), 94-96
Helen Hardacre's Shinto and the State: 1868-1988 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989). 119-33
Jansen, Marius (ed.), Changing Japanese Attitudes to Modernization, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. 151-56
Najita, Tetsuo and J. Victor Koschmann (Eds), Religious Conflict in Modern Japanese History: The Neglected Tradition, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001. 120-27
Yanaihara, T., 1948, Religion and Democracy in modern Japan, Pacific Studies Series. 171-82.
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