Religion and Tourism in Japan: Intersections, Images, Policies and Problems [Hardcover]

In this study, Ian Reader presents new insights into the relationship between religionand tourism more generally and into the contemporary religious situation in Japan. He counteracts scholarship that claims tourism increases religious activity, shows that tourism is a factor in increasing secularization in Japan and draws attention to the role of the state in such contexts.

Although the Japanese constitution prohibits the state from promoting religion, this book shows how state agencies nonetheless encourage people to visit religious sites, by presenting them as manifestations of a shared heritage, in ways that distance them from 'religion'. Reader examines theoretical understandings of religion and tourism and presents case studies of famed pilgrimage routes and temples. He shows how Zen monasteries are now 'tourist brands' and pilgrimages are the focus of TV entertainment programmes, portrayed as opportunities to eat sweets.

Examining the nationalistic rhetoric of nostalgia and unique heritage that underpins the promotion of religious sites, Reader also considers why priests acquiesce in such matters.

Argues that religion and tourism in Japan is an example of secularization highlighting state policies and legal issues.Ian Readeris Professor Emeritus at the University of Manchester, UK. His prime areas of research are on religious dynamics in the contemporary world, with a special focus on Japan, on pilgrimage and on the links between religion and violence. He is the author of numerous books, articles and chapters about such issues, includingPilgrims Until We Die:Unending Pilgrimage in Shikoku,co-authored with John Shultz, (2021) andDynamism and the Ageing of a Japanese New Religion,co-authored with Erica Baffelli (Bloomsbury, 2019).

Religion and Tourism in Japanmakes a substantial contribution to the study of Japanese religions in the context of modern mobility and public visibility. For ma