Paper short abstract:

Drawing upon qualitative data (2016~2020) of post-disaster relief and support activities performed by women of Sōka Gakkai and GLA (God Light Association), results show that religious organizations capitalize women's capacity to transform a condition of vulnerability into a source of resilience.

Paper long abstract:

Disaster risk reduction (DRR) global initiatives as well as the Japan's Basic Plan for Disaster Risk Reduction include gender-sensitive and gender-inclusive approaches into their disaster management strategies. Such DRR guidelines recognise that in the context of persistent social norms that assign women responsibility for the domestic domain, they are primarily responsible of family caregiving and safety of domesticity. Such role requires a tremendous amount of physical and emotional strength in case of disaster in that it implies the capacity of coping with the event, re-establishing a routine and reconstructing the normality of daily living activities in the post-disaster phase. Drawing upon qualitative data (2016~2020) of religious-based post-disaster relief and support activities performed by women of Sōka Gakkai and GLA (God Light Association) in the aftermath of the two Kumamoto earthquakes in April 2016, this study shows that the persistent gender blindness within Japanese institutional post-seismic intervention measures intensifies women's vulnerability. Respondents point out that DRR planning, policies and practices have been male-centred and men-managed, and in many cases they do not reflect the needs and voices of women and other vulnerable social groups. On the other hand, they value their local faith community for the way it quickly responded to their needs and demands: the prompt safety assessment via SNS; the availability of gender-sensitive shelters, goods and food; gender-specific services; and emotional support. The local faith communities' understanding of the complexities of their issues and women's situatedness within the community ― often combined with an existing track record of care and welfare service volunteering ― has served as a strong foundation for provision of support and resilience. Even conservative religious groups such as Sōka Gakkai have become source of successful gender-sensitive responsive activities where women's agency combines both the needs-based and the equality right-based views. Such findings highlight the need to develop official procedures encompassing more adaptive and inclusive models of disaster management to harness women's capacities and faith-based resilience that exist within and across communities in Japan. This research is funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, grant number 16K040640.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the impact of commercial events held inside religious institutions on Buddhist temples struggling to survive in contemporary Japan. Connection (goen) is also discussed to shed light on the religious dimension of commercial events and temple management (jiin keiei) in general.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the impact of commercial events held regularly inside religious institutions on Buddhist temples struggling to survive in contemporary Japan. Buddhism is suffering from weakened connections with local communities and declining influence in the fields such as funerals that it traditionally dominated. Therefore, as a part of temple management (jiin keiei), in recent decades some temples have started lending local organizations their space to hold a specific type of commercial event called “tezukuri market”, where only vendors who handmake their own products are allowed. This paper aims to depict the influence of such commercial events on Buddhist temples through a case study of the first tezukuri market ever established, held monthly in Chionji, Kyoto. Based on participant observation and interviews with people working in the temple and the market, this paper highlights the difficulties faced by urban Buddhist temples that are not popular tourist attractions, the strategies temples are employing to overcome the difficulties, and the new connections formed with people both inside and outside local communities through the tezukuri market.

The notion of “connection” (goen, kizuna, tsunagari, etc.) is a recurrent theme in the study of Japanese religions, such as the importance of human relationship to non-religious people’s participation in rituals and festivals, and the creation and maintenance of connections with deities through ritual actions. However, many studies focus on the ritual aspect of the activities forming connections. This paper puts emphasis on non-religious commercial events that do not require visitors’ attendance in any kind of religious ritual, while connections built between the visitors and the temple during the events give religious meanings to them. “Connection” (goen) is an essential aspect of the tezukuri market and temple management in general. By building new connections, temples are more likely to maintain financial stability, make their name well known, and convince people to take part in religious activities. Therefore, this paper provides insights into Buddhist temples’ attempts to reach out to the public without focusing on their religious characteristics or fully commercializing their strategies to attract visitors.

Paper short abstract:

Rethinking Religion in Japan becomes inevitable when a ubiquitous category of mascots in Japan called kyara is infused into certain religious landscapes leading to kyarafication. The focus of this study is to examine the reason and the impact of the infusion of kyaras in religious spaces in Japan

Paper long abstract:

Religion or Shūkyō (Shu means a sect or denomination and Kyo means teaching or doctrine) in Japan is often a contested term. In Japan, when asked if a person belongs to a religion or is religious, the answer would often be negative. However, a Japanese person denying religiosity or any specific religious affiliation can be perceived as his/her rejection of doctrines, sectarianism and exclusivity while still having a distinctive assertion towards religious practice, rituals and possessing an innate spirituality that keeps on renovating regularly.

Contemporary Japanese religiosity is transforming and being deployed into other areas like popular culture where secular elements of popular culture like kyara is being conflated with that of sacred elements of religion or are being infused in religious landscapes leading to the kyarafication of such spaces and the rethinking of religion in such spaces become inevitable.

Kyara is a multi-functional category of mascots in Japan. Although an element of Japanese popular culture, they are also used in certain religious spaces in Japan, like Shinto Shrines and Buddhist temples. Hence, the topic of this study is to investigate the reasons behind the infusion of kyara in certain religious spaces in Japan, and to examine the impact it has on the practice of religion in those spaces.

The literature on kyara is mainly concentrated on its functionality, possible origin and probable reason for consumption. The academic commentary on the reason behind kyaras amalgamation in religious spaces is scarce and primarily argues that consumption, globalization and secularization are the major reasons behind it.

Through textual analysis and ethnographic research this study shows that long existing tradition of Japanese religion that combines secular elements of play and entertainment with that of the sacred elements of religion, and diminishes the sharp contrast between the two is a major reason behind the infusion of kyara into religious spaces and the impact that it creates is that of recreation of religion. Religion in these spaces is practiced in a diversified and renewed way, thus opposing the secularization theory that suggests a diminishing role of religion in contemporary society.