Word: shinto
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...lenders into a single entity, reduce the bureaucracy's control over government funds, and cut back on subsidies to local governments. But it wasn't his reforms?bold in conception though they may be?that captured the imagination. It was his visit, on Oct. 17, to the tree-shrouded Shinto shrine just across the moat from the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo known as Yasukuni Jinja. Built in 1869, the shrine (whose name means, of all things, "Peaceful Nation") commemorates the souls of more than 2.5 million of Japan's war dead. Koizumi defends his visits to the shrine...
...Japan, however, sumo is not just a sport but also a revered institution, an intrinsic part of the national genome. A number of its esoteric rituals are rooted in Shinto, the native animist religion, and its training emphasizes ancient Japanese virtues, such as duty, fortitude and respect for elders, as much as it does pure athletic prowess. Even though the foreign invasion has reignited public interest in the stagnating sport, many elders at the clubby and hidebound Japan Sumo Association have become fearful that admitting too many hungry foreign upstarts will dilute what they routinely rhapsodize as professional sumo...
...What is Yasukuni? Built in 1869, it's a Shinto shrine in central Tokyo honoring the souls of Japanese killed in battle since the Meiji Restoration. Names of the deceased are added to Yasukuni's book of souls, a list of dead who are worshipped as Shinto deities. There are about 2.4 million spirits enshrined there?87% of whom died in World War II, including 14 Class-A war criminals and about 1,000 Class-B and -C war criminals, as well as roughly 50,000 people from Korea and Taiwan who died fighting for the Japanese...
...between China and Japan still raw after weeks of anti-Japanese protests in major Chinese cities, 80 Japanese Diet members and the personal representatives of 86 others assembled at 8:00 a.m. last Friday to pay their respects at the Yasukuni Shrine in central Tokyo. No ordinary center of Shinto worship, Yasukuni is where the souls of 2.5 million Japanese war dead are enshrined. Since 1978, when 14 of Japan's most notorious World War II war criminals were added to the books of veneration there, Japan's neighbors have considered the shrine not a national and religious monument...
...constitution that was imposed on the country at the end of World War II, and the makeover of Japan's mission statement has been seized by nationalistic lawmakers as an opportunity to reinforce Japanese culture. A subcommittee involved in the revision recently submitted proposals that recommended, for example, restoring Shinto to a privileged, state-funded religion; banning books "that have a detrimental effect on young people's upbringing"; and limiting freedom of assembly. But Stringer's appointment suggests that at least one icon of modern Japan is prepared to take the second course, and open up even more...