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> The cost is minuscule compared to the ROI. Religion in Japan is big business, just like your home country. That's a very western way of looking at things. A
by alephnan 4y ago
> The cost is minuscule compared to the ROI. Religion in Japan is big business, just like your home country.
That's a very western way of looking at things.
Alternatively, it can be viewed as a community crowdsourcing and preserving culture.
- tinco 4y agoNo, it's a sceptical way of looking at it. Most western people also view donating to religious institutions is a way of supporting their communities and culture. Collectivism isn't a monopoly of the east.
- astrange 4y agoThe current religion in Japan was mostly consciously invented in the Meiji period so Westerners couldn’t say they were religion-less savages who needed colonizing. (Same goes for most modern forms of Buddhism.)
- alephnan 4y ago> consciously invented in the Meiji period So the Meiji government traveled back in time a thousand years and erected Shinto shrines all over Japan?
- astrange 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Shinto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Shinto
- alephnan 4y agoThen you should know imperial shrines are obviously different. I’ve been to 47 prefectures of Japan and thousands of shrines. I’m well aware imperial shrines exist. Just because American politicians utilize the word God does not mean they invented Christianity.
- astrange 4y agoBy “the current religion” I mean the practices of lay people, not the buildings. Like not literally believing that kami exist, but doing hatsumode + Buddhist funerals. The Christian-like wedding ceremonies are more recent than that I guess.