Born Shinto, married Christian, buried Buddhist
Japan has more religious adherents than people. Most of the population is counted as both Shinto and Buddhist, yet most say they have no personal faith.
Ask whether someone in Japan is Shinto or Buddhist and the honest answer is often “both”, or “neither”.
More believers than people
Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs collects membership figures from religious organisations. In 2015 they counted roughly 70% Shinto and 70% Buddhist adherents, together far more than the population. Shrines and temples each count the same families.
Yet when people are surveyed about personal belief, a large majority, 72% in a 2013 national survey, say they have no religion. For many people, religion in Japan is about practice and custom, not about declaring a belief.
Life in three traditions
There’s a well-known saying: Japanese people are born Shinto, marry Christian and die Buddhist.
- Birth and childhood: babies are presented at Shinto shrines, and families visit shrines at New Year and for festivals.
- Weddings: Christian-style ceremonies, with a white dress and a chapel, made up roughly 60–70% of weddings around 2015, though Christians are only about 1–2% of the population.
- Death: around 91% of funerals are Buddhist, and family graves are kept at Buddhist temples.
A long history of mixing
For over a thousand years Shinto and Buddhism were deeply combined: shrines had temples and gods were seen as forms of buddhas. In 1868 the Meiji government ordered them separated and promoted State Shinto. In everyday life, though, the mixing never fully stopped.
Bring it up
“There’s a saying that Japanese people are born Shinto, marry Christian and die Buddhist, and the statistics roughly back it up.”
