ABSTRACT
A COMMISSION of eminent scholars and others, appointed by the Home Ministry, has laboured for three years to define Shinto1 and has recently reported failure to reach any definite conclusions. Nor have the Commissioners been able to give a unanimous answer as to whether State Shinto is a religion or not. Whereupon the officials of the Home Ministry have made an important announcement, and one which indicates a distinctly Japanese way of dealing with such affairs, to the effect that “they will adopt a policy of treating State Shinto as a national affair above religion.”
