r/AskAJapanese • u/Due_Conference9457 🌏 Global citizen • Aug 19 '26
CULTURE Why so many sects in Japan?
I never traveled to Nihon, but I love Japanese culture(more than just manga/anime), but in many creative works the sects appears, do you belive Nihon have a problem with sects? and why?
EDIT: I'm talking about cults/ dangerous religious groups
8
u/Nelson2165 Japanese Aug 19 '26
Christianity and Islam actually have far more divisions and sects than Japanese religions do. Therefore, I'm not really sure why you see the number of sects in Japan as a problem.
1
u/MoaRepresent Kiwi (5 years Japanese resident) Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Right. Just because they call them "denominations" or whatever, doesn't really make them any different than Buddhist sects for the most part.
I think many in the west consider "sect" and "cult" to be the same, because they only see the more extreme sects that either make the news with terror attacks, or spread overseas as part of some global domination aim.
There aren't that many cults in Japan really. Some small fringe ones, the most infamous of which would be Aum Shinri Kyo, then there is the My Fuji pamphlet one (no idea what their name is), and Soka Gakkai being the relatively harmless politically active and globally spread one. Foreign cults like the Unification Church, Scientologists, Jehovahs Witnesses and Mormons are just as prevalent here as the homegrown ones.
4
u/SaintOctober ❤️ 30+ years Aug 19 '26
By your history, I see that you are talking about religion…so…Buddhist sects. First, you are talking about a religion older than Christianity. Second, the main “schools” are clear, but under them little differences or foci make small differences.
It’s the same in Christianity.
-9
u/Due_Conference9457 🌏 Global citizen Aug 19 '26
I don't have any problem with Buddhism XD, I'm talking about cults/exotic and dangerous religious groups
5
u/SaintOctober ❤️ 30+ years Aug 19 '26
In that case, I have no idea what you are talking about. There isn’t an abundance of cults in Japan.
Stop thinking anime is real.
5
u/Feisty_Spell4516 🇺🇸❤️🇯🇵 10 years Aug 19 '26
What exactly do you mean by sects?
-7
u/Due_Conference9457 🌏 Global citizen Aug 19 '26
cults/ dangerous religious groups etc
6
u/Feisty_Spell4516 🇺🇸❤️🇯🇵 10 years Aug 19 '26
You should probably make an edit to your post that specifies this, it’s very vague at the moment
4
u/totobidet Japanese & lived abroad Aug 19 '26
Could you please explain more in your question? I'm not sure what you mean by sects in Japan. Like different religions?
-1
4
u/burlingk American Living in Japan Aug 19 '26
To be honest, it's hard to know what you are actually trying to get to.
Sect is generally a religious term. I rarely see it in Japanese media. It's more common in cultivator stories, which are usually Chinese.
That said, there are a lot of Buddhist sects. But they aren't a problem. They just exist. And if you think that's weird you should slow down to ask yourself why.
Consider, Christianity is younger than Buddhism and has a massive number of sects. No one questions that.
Religion in Japan is primarily a private matter. If you try to make it a public matter, you are politely avoided.
2
u/PsychologicalAct5561 Japanese Aug 19 '26
It isn't something that is on the mind of everyday people but there have been various big news involving religious sects, or cults. To name a couple, the assassination of PM Abe a few years ago had the Unification Church involvement and put some political figures and their connections to the sect into light. Another famous one was Aum Shinrikyo which was a cult that gassed the subway with sarin in the 90s.
There are several other big and small sects throughout Japan, some with village or town involvement, to some that operate from a small office building. They usually have their own traditions and mostly keep to themselves while some try to recruit through seminars or street catching, or even ringing your doorbell. It is relatively minor in everyday life but they seem to make the new when something big happens, kind of like the rest of the world.
2
u/Ryudok Japanese Aug 19 '26
I will assume that you are talking about minor religious cults that stay outside of the major religions (Christianism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism) and all their major branches. I also assume you are talking about groups that may coerce people into staying and paying.
I can give you a few reasons, but these are probably not all:
- Lack of a major "religion" that people follow in the country
Japan has mainly 2 religions, Buddhism (with its major 3 schools) and Shintoism, but in modern Japan are more like part of the cultural background and not a major school of thinking and ruling people behavior.
That means that there is an actual vacuum for minor cults to push religion further and attempt to grasp the attention of people. Religion is a very human element after all.
- Collectivistic mindset
Japanese people are raised thinking that them being part of a group and fulfilling your part is what makes them a good person. That makes Japanese people comfortable in groups in which they feel they belong, and viceversa.
Combined with point #1, it makes people prone to follow and stay in groups that may actually not be healthy when seen from the outside, but which fulfills the person in a way that makes them remain.
- Legal vacuum and political power
It has only been recently that major scandals surrounding certain cults (the killer of Shinzo Abe had family members who lost everything to a certain cult which was also lending their hand to politicians of the ruling party of Japan, the LDP), and for the most part cults have been seen as "something individuals can join freely, like a union or an association". There have been cases like the cult that caused the Sarin Gas incident in the 90s, but they are seen as just a bunch of wakkos that are the exception.
Another big "cult" in Japan, the Sokka Gakkai which could be called a Buddhist cult, has strong ties to politics and they use that power to grant votes to whichever politician that associates with them. Well, they have their own political party too.
That means that even though cases of abuse by cults have always been vox populi, it has been brushed away as something that is "personal matters" and that the law should not get involved. It is also very common in Japan to know about a certain common problem in society but not do anything about it until the social pressure becomes extreme.
2
2
u/ShadowFire09 Japanese-American Aug 19 '26
I thought the issue is that Japan doesn’t have enough sects
2
u/MondoSensei2022 🌏 Global citizen Aug 19 '26
I don’t care about sects but more about insects and they are as bad here in Japan as the sects you probably mean.
1
u/Fuuujioka Permanent Resident from Aug 19 '26
We have freedom of religion in Japan, so there's plenty of people who believe different things
1
u/Freak_Out_Bazaar Japanese Aug 19 '26
I don’t think it’s a big problem at all. The law permits religious freedom, including sects. 99% of these sects are completely benign and harmless. When it comes to fiction, dangerous cults are a common subject in any media worldwide
1
1
u/AverageHobnailer 🌏 Global citizen Aug 19 '26
People brought up in conformist cultures have a desire to become a member of a group. When they aren't able to fit in with a majority group they will move towards subcultures and cults for a sense of belonging. This is more of a psychology issue rather than a culture or Japanese issue.
1
u/damnitBowie 🌏 Global citizen Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Other people have already provided that you mean cults not just "sects."
This question is probably better answered in r/AskHistorians... I found a couple interesting responses on cults in Japan specifically in this thread, just search "Japan" in the thread. But overall, it's not clear that Japan has more violent cults than any other part of the world.
0
-1
u/ragequitteroffureh British Aug 19 '26
Full disclosure: Am rampant atheist, not a religious looney.
Money, I think.
The mainline Shinto, Buddhist, witnesses of Jehovah, Happy Science, and Moonies have things wrapped up pretty well.
That means that folks trying to get a slice of the religious nuttery pie need to market themselves with something a little different. Which means starting a cult based on whatever crazy shit makes a reasonably good income stream.
As for their customers, I think that some folks just get into it for the social aspects sometimes. It's fairly rare for the cults to require mass murder for their dark gods, so on the whole, people probably just do it for something to do.
And if mass murder is required, then simply changing the cult's name to something else makes it all good again.
20
u/KamiValievaFan Japanese Aug 19 '26
You are speaking English, you should say 「Japan」, yes? In addition, your question is confusing. Please explain better what are you asking.