This paper discusses adaptations and alternatives that religious institutions in Japan have formulated to help communities develop the capacity to cope with the crisis and perceived risk generated by Covid-19. Qualitative data and observations of online information were collected between February and June 2020. Guided by a crisis approach, the study explores inward and outward responses that some Japanese religious institutions and their members have enacted. The investigation uses Douglas’ (1994) interpretative model of risk and explores those “thought-styles” that religious institutions have engendered that are conducive to cohesion and stability. Findings show that established and new religions alike swiftly responded to Covid-19-induced safety measures by embracing digital technology to continue their core function as cohesion-providers for their social and spiritual communities. The analysis shows that adjustments toward disembodied religious practices might hold potential to continue beyond current Covid-19-related social restrictions.

This paper explores the moderating effect of religious and spiritual coping mechanisms on the COVID-19 pandemic-induced emotional distress among a group of Japanese women practising temple meditation and yoga. A growing body of literature identifies religion and spirituality as sources of coping mechanisms for emotional distress during the pandemic, in that they enable individuals to find ways to improve subjective well-being and quality of life. The study uses a descriptive phenomenological approach, drawing upon narratives collected between September 2020 and June 2021 from thirty-two respondents composed of a mix of religious-affiliated and self-identified non-religious women practising temple meditation and yoga. Findings indicate that more women, including religious affiliates, have favoured spiritual coping mechanisms in the forms of meditation and body–mind practices to build emotional resilience. This reflects a quest for greater subjective well-being to compensate for the increased burden of emotional care during the pandemic. Overall, while organised religions have come to appropriate more holistic forms of spirituality to respond to demands of emotional care, body–mind spiritual practices have become more appealing for younger religious and non-religious Japanese women alike, in that they downplay gender-conforming ideas of the care economy with its emphasis on dedication and dependency.

A large majority of Japanese people describe themselves as mushūkyō, ‘non-religious’, even though they participate in several religious-related cultural practices that socialize them to accept spiritual attitudes without the mediation of organized religion. This phenomenon fits well into the ‘spiritual but not religious’ formula of the contemporary Northern European and North American sociological debate, in which the ‘religion’ and ‘spiritual’ categories denote interdependent, although not always reciprocated, domains. Drawing upon two sets of qualitative data on women belonging to five religious organizations (Shinnyoen, Risshō kōseikai, the Roman Catholic Church in Japan, Sōga Gakkai, and God Light Association (GLA)), in this study, I argue that the religion–spirituality distinction not only fails to capture the empirical reality of contemporary Japanese religions, it also does not take into account new modalities of religious and spiritual experiences of people with such affiliations. Their experiences are expressed through the socio-cultural milieu and the language of religion and spirituality available to them in contiguous and complementary ways. In this respect, the aim of this article is to discuss such aspects of Japanese women’s religious and spiritual experiences that have often eluded scholars writing on Japanese religiosity in order to broaden the focus of reflection to include the mushūkyō aspect and the presumed religion–spirituality mismatch.

"Promising Practices: Women Volunteers in Contemporary Japanese Religious Civil Society" published on 08 Jan 2015 by Brill.

Many sociological studies have discussed the importance of religion and gender as two key components facilitating civic engagement, which in turn is believed to foster citizenship and democratization. Most female members of Japanese new religions engage in a variety of service-oriented volunteer initiatives where they tend to provide help and support to individuals directly, outside of organized volunteer organizations and civic associations. Such volunteer behaviour is defined in the literature as informal volunteering. In this respect, this paper addresses three main questions: 1) What aspects of religiosity relate to women’s participation in informal volunteering sponsored by Japanese religious organizations? 2) What specific volunteer models of women’s social engagement are articulated through informal volunteering and what is the dominant background neoliberal ideology? 3) How do these models foster women’s citizenship and social participation? This paper draws upon two sets of qualitative data (2010–2012 and 2015–2017) of religious-based volunteer activities performed by women belonging to four Japanese religious organizations: Risshō Kōseikai 立正佼成会, Shinnyoen 真如苑, the Roman Catholic Church in Japan (Nihon Katorikku Kyōkai 日本カトリック教会), and GLA ジーエルエー (God Light Association).