Sandro Magister, Why Christianity Is "Foreign" to Japan

A lecture by Japanese ambassador to the Holy See, Kagefumi Ueno. (via the Western Confucian)

The ambassador outlines the various elements that distinguish Japanese religiosity from Christianity. Are these insurmountable intellectual and cultural obstacles to evangelization? Do they have to be broken down by consumerism, worldliness, and an acquisition of the sense of sin before missionaries can be effective?

I do wonder though how big of a role Buddhist nihilism plays in the practical reasoning of the average Japanese. I can't shake the impression that much of Japanese religiosity (especially with respect to nature) is "superficial" in the sense that it has no deep connection to their ultimate end. It is more of a cultural or habitual practice similar to how "cultural Christians" in the West behave than a "religious" practice.


The ambassador does discuss one area of potential agreement between "East" and "West":

BUDDHIST ECONOMICS. A COMMON GROUND


So far I gave a focus on philosophical dimension where the distinction between the east & west is conspicuous. I believe, however, that at a practical level there are some common ground between the two sides.

Some 80 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi, a founding father of modern India, referred to “commerce without morality” as one of “seven social sins”. By the way, other six sins he pointed out were “politics without principles”, ”wealth without work”, ”pleasure without conscience”, ”knowledge without character”, ”science without morality” & ”worship without sacrifice”. (As if uttered by some Pope).

Pope and Vatican also repeatedly issued a number of messages in which they lamented the lack of moralistic consideration on the part of many business leaders.

In Japan, similar voices were heard for decades, inter alia, amongst some economists with Buddhist orientation. In fact, for the last decades some economists started to amalgamate Buddhist philosophy with economic analysis, thereby founding a new discipline titled “Buddhist economics”. I am happy to introduce hereinafter the basic thoughts which shape the Buddhist economics.

Buddhist economists are by and large critical of the Neo-Liberalism which dominated economic policies of major economies of the world in the last decades, thus bringing in the aggravation of economic disparity, inequity, absolutization of profit making and deterioration of global environment.

Whereas there are divergent views among Buddhist economists, I understand that they share the basic eight key tenets as the least common denominators. They are;

– respect of lives;
– non-violence;
– chisoku (awareness of enough);
– kyousei (a sense of living together);
– simplicity, frugality;
– altruism;
– sustainability;
– diversity.

For instance, Ernest Friedrich Schumacher, a German economist and one of the founding fathers of Buddhist economics, an author of the famous “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered”, gave specific focus onto “chisoku” and simplicity.

Likewise, Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmentalist and the winner of Nobel Peace Award in 2004 believe in a philosophy similar to Buddhist economist. She is well known as an advocate of the “Mottainai-Campaign”, i.e. the international campaign with three "Rs" (Re-use, Re-duce and Re-cycle). Some years ago, while she stayed in Japan, she was given to know a Japanese word “Mottainai” which in substance means: “Never discard even petty things since even smallest things have intrinsic values”. At that moment, she got an inspiration for the new campaign, i.e. she was inspired that the ”Spirit of Mottainai” which embodies the spirit of three "Rs" should be diffused globally. She keeps saying that for assuring the protection and preservation of global environment, the “Spirit of Mottainai” is indispensable. This spirit she advocates is obviously in accord with basic thoughts of Buddhist economics.

Buddhist economists are advocating policies which are conducive to, inter alia:

– detachment from growth-conscious approach;
– detachment from oil-driven production;
– establishment of a new international mechanism to do away with violence.

Under the current instability and uncertainty of world economy which intensified skepticism of the free market principles, Buddhist economics are gathering more attention. It may be an interesting idea to arrange a dialogue in this sphere between economists of Buddhist and Catholic orientations.

Unfortunately the Buddhist economists are not in charge of the Japanese economy? Though I have read that Japan is attempting to be more "green" with respect to energy use.


Related:
All Roads Lead to Rome. Even from Asia