by Kenji Ishii

Is there not a need for unbiased, balanced reporting on religious organizations and
for more broadcasting of quality programs on religion?

The New Year season and the Bon Festival in summer to honor the spirits of ancestors are the two times of the year when the Japanese become most actively religious. As Christmas and New Year's Eve approach, even the Japanese see this as a time for looking back over the past year with deep emotion. Then, on January 1, our TV screens show huge crowds making a hatsumode, the first visit of the New Year to a shrine or temple. The scene seems to inform us that the religious side of the Japanese has gone unchanged from ancient times to the present, but this may be a fabrication of the TV images.

It is said that some 20 percent of the Japanese these days prepare no osechi ryori, the traditional Japanese foods of the New Year season. Traditional New Year customs are disappearing from households and communities, and amid the hustle and bustle of modern life, rejoicing at the arrival of the New Year has become a thing of the past. One nonfiction writer even stated that the New Year steps out to greet us from the TV screen while we watch the annual "Yukutoshi kurutoshi" program ring the old year out and the new one in on New Year's Eve, gaze at scenes of crowds lined up before shrines and temples, and enjoy other New Year's programs.

To urban residents, some of the key images that represent the end of one year and the start of the next are those broadcast on "Yukutoshi kurutoshi." The program begins with the scene at a temple as its bell rings out the old year and ends with a scene at a shrine where the New Year is joyously welcomed. By imperceptible degrees, we have come under the influence of religious information delivered by television. In fact, we may have been more than influenced. Perhaps the very religious reality of the contemporary Japanese has come to be created by the TV.

Two Changes in the Postwar Religious Nature of the Japanese

When we take a bird's-eye view of the religious behavior and attitudes of the Japanese since World War II, two major changes stand out. One is the weakening of religious sentiment and the other is the strengthening of critical attitudes toward religious organizations.

After the war, close to 70 percent of the Japanese replied yes to the question, "Do you have a religious belief?" Today, some sixty years later, fewer than 30 percent answer in the affirmative. The share of the Japanese who say they are interested in religion has also declined. And among young Japanese, those who reply that religion is "not important" have come to outnumber those who say it is "important."

Religion is on the retreat as an element of daily life. Shinto altars (kamidana) and Buddhist altars (butsudan) used to be normal fixtures of the Japanese home, but the number of households with them rapidly dwindled during the postwar years. More than half of all households in the nation lack Shinto altars, and in Tokyo only about one family in four has one. Buddhist altars have fared somewhat better, but even they remain in only about half of homes nationwide and 40 percent of homes in Tokyo.

We are witnessing a weakening of the religious nature of the Japanese, which used to be nurtured in daily life through rites of passage and annual events. Only a few such religious activities have managed somehow to remain popular, among them hatsumode and the Bon Festival, as mentioned at the start of this essay. Another is the visits many people make to graves to comfort the souls of ancestors and family members who have departed. These occur on the occasion of o-higan, a one-week period twice a year centered on the vernal and autumn equinox days.

In 1995 the Japanese were severely shocked when the Aum Shinrikyo cult released the deadly sarin gas in Tokyo subways. The coordinated attacks by this religious group killed twelve people and injured more than five thousand. The postwar Japanese had been growing increasingly critical of religious organizations, and this atrocity cemented that attitude. Even today, religious organizations have been unable to regain much trust, with people rating them alongside Japan's parliament as untrustworthy bodies.

Religious Information Grows Stereotypical

In the midst of the changing postwar situation, television has continued to provide a wide variety of religious information. Even as organized religion has fallen out of favor, whether traditional religions or new religions are concerned, television is the one institution that has continued to transmit messages relating to religion. But the images and information on religion delivered by TV are growing stereotypical.

The American journalist Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) coined the term stereotype in its modern sense in his 1922 work Public Opinion. This is an oversimplified, preconceived, and distorted notion or image of some social phenomena shared by the members of a specified social group. Stereotypes are often used as tools for social control, one infamous example being the Nazi propaganda about the Jews.

Four Types of TV Programs Providing Religious Information

TV programs relating to religion can be broadly grouped into four categories. The first is the programs religious organizations themselves supply. At present none of the key TV stations are airing any of these programs. In the past, several such programs were broadcast, including Hiei no hikari (Light on Mount Hiei) and Kokoro no tomoshibi (A lamp in the heart). After other programs had been discontinued, one of the private broadcasters, NTV (Nippon Television Network Corporation), continued to present Shukyo no jikan (Religion's hour) for a number of years, but in March 2001 this, too, went off the air. It was unilaterally terminated at the convenience of the broadcaster.

The second category consists of educational programs, a representative example being Kokoro no jidai (The spiritual age) of the public broadcaster NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation). The private broadcasters also air programs of this type, although such programs are few. I find it disturbing that these programs have recently become overly focused on just the temples and churches on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Educational programs are a genre I would like to see get greater attention.

The third category covers news reports with a religious angle. Often they are reports on incidents or scandals or coverage of seasonal events and festivals. In the area of incidents and scandals, just a few examples are the affair of the Ark of Jesus cult, which was accused of kidnapping and brainwashing; the alleged swindling scandal by the Ho no Hana Sanpogyo cult; the case of the Kigenkai cult, one of whose members was beaten to death; and a whole string of incidents involving Aum Shinrikyo. Incidents and scandals caused by religious organizations tend to get intensive media coverage and are often mined for their sensational, attention-attracting value, with segments of the daytime talk shows devoted to them. Anybody who has been watching Japanese TV in recent years will recall that this was the kind of treatment accorded to the doomsday Chino Shoho cult and its "scientific" arm, Pana Wave Laboratory. In the case of new religions, about the only time they receive any coverage is when they get involved in difficulties. Religious activities that make contributions to society rarely find their way to the TV screen.

Within this category of news reports is some coverage of religion in daily life, such as the religious customs I mentioned at the start, as well as reports that mention religions overseas. Often a function at a shrine or temple will be reported in the news as a seasonal event. This type of coverage is becoming stereotypical through its focus on familiar traditional religious events.

The reporting on religion overseas is extremely one-sided. Islam is mentioned only in connection with reports on incidents caused by extremists; Hinduism is portrayed as if it were an undeveloped religion. In general the reports on the world's religions feature bizarre rituals or strange customs, and they seem of little use in enhancing understanding of foreign cultures. Because viewers watch the programs without much conscious thought, more consideration should be paid to what is presented.

The fourth category is variety shows with religious content. In the 1970s programs on the alleged supernatural powers of such psychics as Uri Geller debuted on prime-time TV, and today they have flowered into a whole broadcasting genre covering alleged supernatural powers, spiritualist phenomena, unidentified flying objects, mythical creatures, and other such subjects. In recent years these programs have begun to receive critical scrutiny, and they have been attacked as promoting emotionally manipulative sales and giving support to pseudoscience, thereby violating the program standards of the broadcasters.

Wanted: Religious Literacy and Quality Programs

There is much that needs to be said, but here I will sum up my thoughts in just two points. The first is that there is an insufficiency of what is called religious literacy. In view of the fact that religion plays an important role the world over, should we not be disturbed by the problems in the religious information delivered by television today? It is not just that TV broadcasters are failing in a duty they have set for themselves, which is to contribute to public welfare and cultural improvement. Worse than that, quite a few harmful programs that perpetuate prejudiced views are being aired.

Second, is there not a need for unbiased, balanced reporting on religious organizations and for more broadcasting of quality cultural programs on religion? Toward this end, we would be wise to create an organization charged with regularly checking the veracity of TV reporting on religion, calling attention to problem points and giving public praise to quality programs.

The Changing Information Environment

It was in the second half of the 1990s that use of the Internet began to spread in Japan as people became familiar with it. Today the Internet has become a widely employed information tool. Talk about the media formerly considered only newspapers and television, but the times are greatly changing.

From the viewpoint of users, the element of chance draws a sharp dividing line between TV and the Internet. Whereas chance is a major factor in what TV viewers watch, it plays a much smaller role in Internet use. Until now TV viewers would happen to encounter shows on alleged supernatural powers and spiritualist phenomena as they surfed channels, and indeed these shows were put together with that in mind, but one does not come across these subjects on the Internet unless one searches for them.

As the structure of daily life changes, will not the religious nature of the Japanese grow weaker yet? And among those who are keenly interested in religion, will they not acquire more and more information about it? Along the way, we may see the formation of an insurmountable barrier of understanding dividing these religiously oriented citizens from the rest of the public.

It is my fervent hope that what we will witness instead is the arrival of an age in which respect for religious culture spreads widely among the Japanese.