I think that the western concept of "religion" doesn`t apply to Japan, so it appears that there is no religion.

The truth is, it`s so ingrained in daily life that Japanese people themselves don`t actively think about it. The same type of guy who says "I don`t believe in any religion" is often the type who will refuse to drive a new car until it has been blessed. Ask why - and he`ll say it`s because it`s not safe, and that you have to make some offering about it. It`s such a deep part of regular life that it doesn`t register as "religion" among those practicing it. It is just part of life - If you say "religion" it means going to a church etc and worshipping something. Japanese people don`t do that, so it`s really easy to say they don`t have a religion.

Life. Just stuff you do.
There have to be things that you do in your life that don`t hold any "real" meaning, but you do them because they are something you feel you HAVE to do in order to have a good life - it`s like that.

Japanese religion was never about worshiping some big god - it`s always been about trying not to offend the little gods.

I have to completly agree with you on this, Actually I had a very similar conversation with a woman that has lived in Japan for 20+ years a lot of it sounds exactly the same (your not her are you JK:mtongue: )

Thanks for the agreement. :) I think that the big thing here is that saying "religion" signifies "worshiping/believing in something that doesn`t exist" to Japanese.
So of course what most people do wouldn`t classify as such, because, they may likely exist. Just like all the cooks in the area who make offerings to the pickle god in our local shrine - Better to make the offerings than risk offending the god. Is it religion? Of course they would say no, because it`s not "worship" as such. But in reality, it is religion.

(Oh, and that definitely isn`t me. :mtongue: I`ve only been here 9 years, plus I`m still only 26. I highly doubt I could have made it over here at 6!)

Yeah she also had a name (that she kinda made up) for the Japanese religion because Japanese are both Buddhist and Shinto (there was a saying that I heard there it was “Japanese are born Shinto and Die Buddhist”) any ways she call them Bushinkyo ( because most Japanese have the concept of both Shinto and Buddhism)

In denial? I don't think so. If you ask them about their religion, they would tell you that they are Buddhist. As stated by Nyororin, its not just going to the temple and worshipping , there beliefs are already integrated into there daily lives, so its like normal thing to do.

I dunno, somehow its hard the separate the religion and tradition here.. its closely entwined..

It`s not denial. It`s far more a mistranslation, really. Japanese "religion" is hardly ever referred to as "religion". So when someone says to a Japanese person - "Are you religious?" Or "Do you believe in god?" - they automatically think of the religions that are CALLED religions. Like Christianity, etc. And as they are not any of those, they will answer no. This is especially true when someone not Japanese asks about it - because it`s even easier then to connect it to foreign religions which are practiced more than being part of life.

Not to mention that if you ask a Japanese Person if they are religious most will say no not because of denial but because they actually think that they don’t. as said by samokan Its so intertwined that you cant tell. Like America where church and state are separate, there both part of the same thing.

Know if you where to ask a Christian Japanese person if they are religious then yes they would say they are.

Also another cool thing is that most (if not all) Christian Japanese are still Shinto to some extent (the ones I’ve met) heck I think I’m even a bit Shinto