Word: shinto
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...Japanese word burakumin literally translates as “village people”—and the burakumin are outcasts in Japanese society. Discriminated against since the 15th century, the burakumin were undertakers and public executioners, and some still work in trades considered impure in Buddhism and Shinto. Though some measures have tried to recompense for past isolation, a rift between burakumin and the rest of society exists even today...
Koizumi's appeal isn't just about cleaning up politics and fixing the economy. He is also tapping into nationalistic sentiment. He advocates tinkering with the U.S. security pact and the Constitution to give Japan's military more flexibility. Last month he visited Yasukuni, the controversial Shinto war shrine where Japan's war dead, including war criminals, are honored. "You can't overestimate how much patriotism drives his thinking," say Jesper Koll, chief economist with Merrill Lynch in Japan and a Koizumi...
...into trouble than out of it. Koizumi is close to right-wingers like Shintaro Ishihara, the Tokyo governor and Yasuhiro Nakasone, a former Prime Minister, and it was apparently on their advice that he made his first political gaffe: on Aug. 13, he paid his respects at Yasukuni, the Shinto shrine where Japan's soldiers, including indicted war criminals, are honored. The right-wingers supported him as pacifists and even mainstream politicians objected. The gesture infuriated Japan's neighbors, notably China and South Korea, who viewed the Prime Ministerial visit to the shrine as condoning Japan's wartime aggression. Koizumi...
...ANGRY NEIGHBORS Beijing and Seoul are furious with the nationalistic tone of Koizumi's administration, his visit to the Shinto shrine that honors Japan's war dead and his tacit approval of a revisionist textbook that waters down wartime aggression Koizumi's plan: Use personal charm in diplomatic tete-a-tetes with Asian counterparts Outlook: POOR. Korea's Kim Dae Jung and China's Jiang Zemin have snubbed his overtures. They want concessions before they'll talk. Giving in would make Koizumi look bad at home...
...morning of the attack, we were divided into two groups. I was in the second group. I put on my best uniform, my flying uniform, the khaki-colored one. I prayed at a wooden replica of a Shinto shrine. I bowed once. I didn't ask for much. I said simply: "I am going...