Mimusubi

The name for Japan’s next era, which starts on the first of May with the accession of the new Tennō, was announced yesterday: Reiwa (令和). The announcement was made at 11:41 yesterday morning, and it has dominated the news since. Much of this news has been about people’s impression of the name. My daughter (age 11) was unimpressed, and thought that it sounded like it had been chosen by a bunch of old guys. Which is accurate. As a sound, it has grown on me, and I think it will… Read More »The New Era Name

I have had an article published in the latest Jinja Shinpō. It is a response to a review of a book about foreigners moving to Japan and taking over that was published a few weeks ago. Earlier drafts were a lot less temperate than the final one… In the end, I focused on a genuine problem that was mentioned, and that jinja can actually do something about. The problem is this. It is not uncommon for immigrants to a country to gather in areas with many people from the same… Read More »Jinja and Immigrants

Japan, as you may be aware, has a lot of natural disasters. It has so many, in fact, that Our Imperial Family, a quarterly magazine published with a lot of support from Jinja Honchō (if you are a Honchō-accredited priest, it is my understanding that a subscription is basically compulsory, although not officially compulsory) has a column in every issue about jinja recovering from the effects of natural disasters. The disasters and jinja change, but there is always enough material. The important thing about the columns is that they are… Read More »Rebuilding Jinja

This week’s Jinja Shinpō included an article about several surveys of Japanese social attitudes that have been carried out regularly over several decades. The one it was reporting in particular was carried out by NHK, the Japanese national broadcaster (like the BBC in the UK), and has been carried out every five years since 1973. Last year’s results showed clear majorities (60 to 70%) for statements like “You don’t have to get married”, “You don’t have to have children if you do get married”, “Women should continue working after they… Read More »Social Attitudes

The latest Jinja Shinpō has an interesting article about the performance of a matsuri in China. The matsuri was to mark the beginning of construction work on a ship, asking the kami for safety. It is probably no surprise to hear that the project was a joint venture between a Chinese company and a Japanese one, and that the initiative came from the Japanese partner. The priests were invited from a jinja in Shikoku, presumably due to a personal connection with the head of the Japanese company, and the article… Read More »Matsuri in China