Word: shinto
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...Irozaki, the final stop on the line, features the "Jungle Park," an excellent showcase of tropical birds and plants with a soundtrack straight out of King Kong. To reach the southernmost tip of the Izu, walk through a torii, or Shinto gate, near the rear exit of the Jungle Park and step down past a little shrine. There you'll look out over jutting rocks as fishing and cargo boats ply the black waters to the south. I was thoroughly enjoying the isolated, out-of-this-world feeling, when I met Naoki Taira, a 25-year-old Tokyoite...
...reason for the official silence is that Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), in power almost continuously since 1955, is beholden to nationalistic groups such as the million-strong Shrine Association, which represents Japan's 80,000 Shinto shrines. This staunchly conservative organization, which opposes compensating sex slaves and other victims of Japan's aggression, continues to insist that Japan fought on foreign soil to liberate its neighbors from Western colonialism. Nearly half of the LDP members in Japan's parliament routinely attend Shrine Association events or accept its donations, according to Nobunao Tanaka, author of two books critical...
Nagasaki's best experiences are its surprises-like the kind stranger on a streetcar who invites me to dinner ("I have a daughter who studied English in Canada. Let me make you sushi!"). On my last Saturday in town, I am on my way to visit the Suwa Shinto Shrine when I hear the music of a parade. Two large drums, carried on the backs of robed festival participants, keep rhythm for a 20-person contingent. Men in suits and white-faced women in bright kimonos lead the procession down stone sidewalks, beginning the 168-step ascent to the three...
...Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's Prime Minister, to a Tokyo shrine containing the remains of war criminals have joined legal proceedings against him. About 800 people, mostly South Koreans, signed on to one of three law-suits that are pending against Koizumi. The suits claim that his visit to the Shinto Yasukuni shrine, which commemorates 2,460,000 Japanese war dead, contravenes the constitutional separation of church and state. Though Koizumi's two visits have annoyed Seoul and Beijing, the three lawsuits (originally filed by about 900 people in November) are unlikely to get the official backing of either government.opment measures...
...additional cults are springing up, offering refuge to disillusioned youth in a Japan that, owing to a pervasive sense of economic doom, is searching for its soul. By one government estimate, there are more than 10,000 "new religions" in Japan, meaning anything other than the traditional Buddhist, Shinto and Christian sects. There is one group whose leader claims that he doesn't need to eat, bathe or sleep because of his superhuman powers; another outfit worships feet. "People are seeking mental healing during this time of continuous bad news," says Nobutaka Inoue, a professor of religious studies at Tokyo...