Maybe this was discussed to death following the Abe assassination, so apologies in advance, but I’m genuinely both fascinated and entirely confused about Japan’s problem with cults.
They seem to be openly aggressive in recruitment, numerous, very engaged politically and socially, and all seemingly immensely flush with people’s cash.
You only need to look at the Moonies ties to Abe & political power…
And yet this is a country that both has comparatively high social cohesion, generally speaking, which I would’ve thought would be a buffer, and only recently – historically speaking – suffered a fairly horrendous attack by a cult (the Aum Shinrikyo).
I’m keen on any theories or books that have insight here.
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Why are people attracted to evangelical Christianity or Mormonism? It’s probably the same phenomenon.
I can’t think of anywhere outside of closed off countries that cults aren’t prevalent. We are social creatures.
I think the lack of a “religious mainstream” (62% of Japanese identify as irreligious) means that the fringe groups stand out more. In the case of the Moonies, as I understand it they were installed into power due to their anti-communist stance during the Vietnam conflict.
People want to be a part of a group. When they are young, they have their class, then club, then university circle, then coworkers.
What if you don’t like / fit in with your coworkers? What if you have grown up around most people defining themselves by the group they belong to? Well, then you need an accepting group, don’t you?
I feel more that they lack the ability to analyse, reflect and criticise things. At home, you follow the rules. At school, you follow the rules, you learn by heart, you reproduce what they showed you. They are not raised, they are trained like an IA.
So when you are just following the flow, crushed by social pressure, and a cult come with some magic to brighten up your life, and you don’t have the mental weapons to analyse and understand it’s bullshit… You’re an easy prey.
Cults are a global phenomenon that are on the rise all over the world these days. Social media makes it easy for them to get their message out, and economic, social and political upheaval create more disaffected people who are looking for answers and comradery. Cults are increasingly political and conspiratorial these days, which points to eroded trust in institutions.
Comparatively speaking, I’d say Japan is better off than most countries in this regard.
(Warning: generalizations incoming)
Japanese are usually born and raised secular but very superstitious. As they get older, without a faith to guide their spirituality they often find “new religions” to gain a feeling of spiritual enlightenment (deeper meaning) and psychological fortification, which standard society lacks. In many Western countries people will turn to more traditional religions and become something like a “born-again Christian” or whatever. However, there are also tons of cults in places like the US and UK, they usually just don’t get as much coverage as they do in Japan considering how the ideology of religious freedom is (not really) established here.
Lots of gullible people sitting on money they don’t know what to do with. Also, culturally speaking, relatively easy to exploit various social contexts to get people involved in cults.
If we look at when a lot of the ones that fall under the label of “new religion”, like Happy Science or Aum Shinrikyo/Aleph, their founding definitely seems to correspond to the rise of the Japanese bubble economy of the mid-late 80s. So I think the founding at least had to do with a lot of corporate greed combined with a lot of people suddenly having serious income and not knowing how to be responsible with it and subsequently getting fleeced.
Now, as the proliferation… again, a lot of these groups had started during the bubble, so after the bubble burst, I imagine there were *a lot* of disenfranchised/desperate people who needed some form of support to make it through sudden economic loss/joblessness.
Now, from that time until now, you’ve got increasingly distant youth who don’t really want to participate in societal expectations, have issues with their family, etc. So it makes sense, at least to me, when you look at those as contributing factors.
Lots and lots of sad gullible people.
People have already commented about this here, but I think I’ll add a little bit of what I was explained in Japanese society lessons I had in college.
In the 70’s there was a phenomenom called ‘new new religions’ – And it is no coincidence that it occurred during the era of the economic miracle. In just 20 years there was a big change in the japanese economy and society with newer values, people were more competitive, individualistic, etc. Many people experienced personal discontent, the feeling that something was missing and A LOT OF PESSIMISM. These cults, at first, were small communities because the thought was that society wasn’t going to change, so there was an emphasis in indivudal transformation as well.
The society was urbanized, middle-class people with studies were looking for a fraternal-like society because they felt insatisfaction. The figure of a leader, someone that guided them, and a small community of people that were connected was very important to feel ‘in-place’.
My Japanese society teacher said that the Second World War played a big role with this as well. The ideological system of the Empire was erased overnight, it was a fairly immediate past that had been flooded – that affected the identity of the Japanese a lot. It was even much easier to look at the millennial past of traditional Japanese symbolism and think of an ultra-technological future than to look at the immediate past.
The 90s were also very tough. There was a big earthquake in Kobe (1995) and the burst of the economic bubble made the society feel insecure and afraid, tha was a huge change from the wellbeing of the 70-80s. And even if it can sound funny nowadays, there was also a collective fear of entering the 2000s (milleniarism).
So, answering to this question, of course there are many reasons as why Japanese people join cults. Many people join because it’s a way to socialize and feel that you’re part of a community. It could be said that it’s to fight the feeling of loneliness and lack of purpose, sometimes people join because they are insatisfied with their lives and so on. There are many cults because each people situation is different and they have different focus.
Sorry if my answer wasn’t the best but I hope it helped a bit.
A collectivist society with major problems with isolation + a largely irreligious society = tons of cults
I’m not sure that they are especially prevalent here. There are millions of members of the New Religions in Japan, but not all New Religions are personality cults or anything like that. They’re just groups that emerged after Japan established religious freedom in the late 1800s. Moreover, a lot of those people being counted as “members” are super loosely affiliated people who went to a meeting once and thought it was kind of interesting.
To the extent there are a number of groups that think they’ll realize world peace by repeating the Lotus Sutra and doing ego projects for the leader, a lot of it seems mostly harmless, obvious exceptional incidents aside. There are certainly more Evangelical Protestants and QAnons in the US and Europe building up their armories in preparation for the imminent End of Days than there are Japanese New Religionists ready to get violent.
ummm, they’re not….?
Am I missing something?
Cults are far more prevalent in msny other countries.
for example, just look atthe USA, mormonism, evangelicalism, Scientology,
many cristian sects… they are everywhere omover there.
The Moonies were specifically supported by the LDP because they hate on leftists and share conservative values.
More broadly, I feel like since Christianity and more hardcore/observant strains if Buddhism haven’t taken root in the modern Japanese population for various historical reasons, people go to cults to scratch the devout/messianic/fundamentalist itch, should they have it.
As a former mormon who was a missionary in Tokyo, because japan isn’t religious we kept things very beginner and easy.
People aren’t as familiar with christianity so there were less questions we had to deal with if that makes sense.
Also Mormons traditionally are big on community, so there are large support groups and clubs. Lots of people are lonely here, so if people join mormonism then they have an automatic family like friend group. This can fill a need for love and acceptance that may be harder to find elsewhere here in Japan.
Its funny, because near the spot where I feed the homeless there’s a Happy Science church. They’ve never tried converting us, but if they do I’m a card-carrying Satanist so I’d fuck with them lol.
This is the country of conformity and group mentality, both key elements in cult thinking. The question should be why they aren’t more prevalent.