Is Prime Minister Abe planning "a revival of Shinto as a state religion"?

By Anonymous -
by Nobuo Ikeda


It seems that a stereotypical news coverage of Japan is on the rise again as the Ise-Shima Summit approaches. The majority of such coverage is criticism of “Abe's ultra right wing regime” thanks to their flawed association of ideas that the Ise shrine equals a state religion of Shinto which equals nationalism. I assume that the above column was written by an editor for Asian affairs based in London. Because he is typically relying on a secondary source of information, such as Japan Times, a number of basic errors are cited in the column.

Firstly, Shinto is not a religion as he understands it. There are neither doctrines nor a founder. When it began is also unknown. The name, 'Shinto' was given to the collective ancient faiths of various folks from different regions in Japan by Atsutane Hirata, et al in the Edo era. It is believed that the Ise shrine was founded in the 9th century, and the “state religion of Shinto” did not exist at the time. Therefore, the Ise shrine is irrelevant to nationalism.

Amaterasu Ohmikami is the deity enshrined at the Ise shrine. She is not the God as in Christianity. There are hundreds of gods in Japan and she is just one of them. There are other shrines that enshrine the same god in Japan and the Ise shrine wasn't the special one originally. The first emperor to visit the Ise shrine was Emperor Meiji.

Since the Meiji era, the Ise shrine had been used for deifying the emperors. It, however, is a completely different case from the Yasukuni (shrine), which was founded at the end of the Edo era to comfort the spirits of the war dead. Therefore, the following conclusion as in the column is a total nonsense:

“The problem for America in dealing with Mr. Abe […] includes a revisionist view of history, in which Japan's only important mistake in the second world war was to lose it; a rejection of the American-imposed constitution and its renunciation of war; and perhaps a revival of Shinto as a state religion.”


It is troublesome that a highly esteemed publication, such as the Economist, is printing such an unsubstantiated argument that Prime Minister Abe is planning “a revival of Shinto as a state religion” and that it is read by world leaders. The Japanese government must unravel such a misunderstanding and make diversity of Japanese culture known to the world in this opportunity of the summit.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A troubling position on 'comfort women'

By -
The Yomiuri Shimbun's editorial criticizes the EU Parliament's resolution: The Japanese government must lobby other governments to persuade them not to follow in the footsteps of the European Parliament in adopting a resolution that sullies Japan's standing. The European Parliament has adopted a resolution condemning Japan over the "comfort women" issue. The resolution calls for the government to apologize, saying the Imperial armed forces coerced young women in Asia to work as "sex slaves" before and during World War II. The latest development resembles the resolution adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives over the comfort women issue in July. This matter has now spilled over to Europe. The parliaments of Canada and the Netherlands also have adopted similar resolutions. However, interest in the comfort women issue has not necessarily been high in Europe. The European Parliament's resolution was advocated by the minor Green Party and fewer tha
Read more

Norimitsu Onishi, a liar

By -
The most influential source of lies is Norimitsu Onishi , the Tokyo bureau chief of NY Times . He was born in 1969 in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, and moved to Canada when he was four. He graduated from Princeton University and joined the Times and covered Africa, Afganistan, and other foreign countries before he came to Japan in 2003.
Read more

Asahi Shimbun fabricated "comfort women"

By -
Image
All these things began with a wrong article. "Comfort women" or  "military abduction" weren't discussed before it. The Asahi Shimbun reported in the front page on 11 January 1992 that the historian Yoshiaki Yoshimi discovered documents that proves the Army's "commitment" to comfort women in the archives of Japan's Defense Agency.
Read more