Buddhism's Struggles in Japan

D.C. calls my attention to this article in the NY Times: In Japan, Buddhism May Be Dying Out. Japanese Buddhism has always been a pretty complicated phenomenon. The Mahayana Buddhists with whom I studied were somewhat critical of what they judged to be a corrupted tradition. It's one of the reasons I'm always amused when Westerners imagine that Eastern Religions are free of the politics and judgmentalism that they ascribe to Christianity. Anyway, Buddhism appears to be in decline in Japan:

Over the next generation, many temples in the countryside are expected to close, taking centuries of local history with them and adding to the demographic upheaval under way in rural Japan.

Many reasons are given. Some are demographic. Some are more troubling:

He said Japanese Buddhism had been sapped of its spiritual side in great part because it had compromised itself during World War II through its close ties with Japan’s military. After Buddhist priests had glorified fallen soldiers and given them special posthumous Buddhist names, talk of pacifism sounded hollow.

Mr. Mori, the priest here, said that after the war there was a desire for increasingly lavish funerals with prestigious Buddhist names. These names — with the highest ranks traditionally given to those who have led honorable lives — are routinely purchased now, regardless of a dead person’s conduct in life. (source)

What's really sad is some of these priests who are umpteenth-generation priests and have no heir.

-t