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Japan’s Newest Technology Innovation: Priest Delivery
- visarga 10y agoClassic Japanese weird.
- throwanem 10y agoHardly that; Roman Catholic priests make house calls, too, and hospital calls, when it's needed. This just streamlines the process.
- Panoramix 10y ago'Japanese weird' is nothing but confirmation bias. Because you only hear about the outliers, stories strange enough to make their way all through the ocean. There are myriads of ultra-bizarre things happening around you, but most likely you view them as isolated events and don't have a label for them. Whereas you do have one label for Japan, and whenever you encounter something unusual you confirm this bias - while ignoring other things. Next time ask yourself questions such as: is this commonplace in that country? is this considered unusual by the locals as well? is this considered normal in cultures other than mine? Most likely the journalist will not answer these for you - bad journalists often rely on stereotypes and biases to appeal to your feelings of shock.
- astrange 10y agoIn India you can get the whole thing done online: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-31002439 http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-31002439 (there was a better story but I can't remember the search keywords for it…)
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- steven777400 10y agoI understand the traditionalists hesitation (and fear). But it seems to me this is actually a good thing from the Buddhist perspective; it's increasing contact in an age of more secularism. Customers like Mr. Kai in the article seem just as likely to simply not use a priest at all, rather than figure out how to negotiate with the local temple that they have no roots in, if the "on-demand" service was not available.
- frozenport 10y agoOn the other hand Mr. Kai gave some portly dude 50 bucks to dance around his living room. Without community and roots, religion is a scam.
- scoot 10y agoReligion is a scam in either case, so why not streamline it?
- toasterlovin 10y agoSure, most of humanity participates in a religion of some kind, but they're all just fools getting taken in a con. I get that there are some well established problems that come up in conjunction with religion, but perhaps there's a little bit more to it than that, no?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- kbart 10y agoBig (if not major) part of humanity are used to some kind of drugs too (alcohol, tobacco, sugar, coffee etc.), but we don't say there's something more to it. Religion is a drug for one's mind to make feel better and ease existential pain/uncertainty.
- gerbilly 10y ago
- tetraodonpuffer 10y agotangentially related, I saw the 2008 Japanese movie "Departures" recently and it was quite fascinating to see the funeral rites and general attitudes towards it, very interesting movie if you happen to catch it http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/
- M_Grey 10y agoSo it's like... Bonze Uber? 1-800-DIAL-A-BONZE... if it were shipboard it would be... umibozu, no wait, that's a very different entity entirely. Jokes aside though, this makes a lot of sense. I would guess that in a busy urban life, religion probably gets the "no time today" treatment. The ability to get a house call, on that basis alone, seems like a smart model to follow. When you add in the problem of Japan's elderly and young shut-in population, maybe it even makes more sense.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- goberoi 10y agoDirect link to the detail page on Amazon (taken from the article): https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B018HVTR2U https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B018HVTR2U
- twblalock 10y agoThe Buddhist temples ought to be embracing this. Many of them are running out of money. Frankly, Buddhism in Japan was run like a business since the 1600s, when the government made every family register with a temple (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danka_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danka_system). This led to the development of "funerary Buddhism," in which Buddhist temples made most of their money providing funeral services and benefitted from legally mandated customer loyalty. The temples survived primarily on funeral income for a long time, and now that it's no longer legally required to register with a temple, the temples are having a pretty hard time. Most of them subsist mainly on tourism money and donations now.
- thatcat 10y agoit seems like the only recurring revenue they might receive comes from publishing books
- mathrawka 10y agoIf you have a family cemetery spot at the temple, you pay a yearly fee for it.
- Arkaad 10y agoThey're running out of business? Their services are so expensive that I thought most of them are driving BMWs.
- mverwijs 10y agoIs this the first step towards the Electric Monk then? "Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected you to believe. " -Douglas Adams
- hkmurakami 10y agoI've personally been through several Buddhist funerals for my grandparents, and can attest to this murky and opaque "business" practice of traditional Buddhist temples. There are many additional "upkeep fees" that you're expected to donate to your family temple for years (at least 7 years after death iirc). As a westerner, I was quite befuddled. But it's really a SaaS model of you think about it. I really welcome the transparency this service will bring. Also, many people move to Tokyo from other regions and really don't have the "family temple" to turn to.
- aaronbrethorst 10y ago> But it's really a SaaS model of you think about it. Spirituality as a service?
- virgulino 10y agoSoul.
- draugadrotten 10y ago> you're expected to donate to your family temple for years Well, it's a matter of semantics. In several Western countries, including Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Norway, Sweden such 'donations' are extracted by force from the people by the tax man, and then the state funds the church to varying degrees. Same result, different force.
- partycoder 10y agoI think there was an actual church inside the Second Life MMO.
- 205guy 10y agoQuite likely. I knew of a shamanism-based group that had conversational and spiritual meetings within second life.
- plinkplonk 10y agoMany 'occult' groups met in Second Life, some charging money for attendance.
- TorKlingberg 10y agoIt's interesting that the middleman taking 30 percent is a constant across countries and products.