ABSTRACT
This book started with the observation that the jargon of globalization has been progressively incorporated in religious communication within the Japanese context. The case studies analyzed in the previous chapters provide enough evidence to argue that contemporary Japanese religions not only speak of globalization but also act within this process in various roles. Perhaps the most apparent of these is the way Japanese religions provide material to cultural global flows, thus acting as carriers of globalization in a broader sense than that implied by their missionary activities overseas. However, it is possible to see that the dramatically increased flow of cultural exchanges in the last few decades of accelerated globalization is related to religion in other important ways. To start with, the progressive relativization of religious values increasingly prompts Japanese religions to reposition themselves on the world religious map in relation to other religions, whose dignity may be acknowledged to various degrees. On another level, Japanese religions respond to global cultural flows by shaping new glocal identities, whereby the catalyst in the process of glocalization may be provided by external and ‘native’ sources. Paradoxically, these processes of religious change showing the active role of Japanese religions within global dynamics may be closely intertwined with the promotion of cultural chauvinism, which is not infrequently mistaken as implying a complete rejection of globalization. At the same time, this does not exclude that Japanese religions may also resist relativization and oppose change in an attempt to avoid cultural homogenization. Moreover, the involvement of Japanese religions in global dynamics at the systemic level is also relevant. In this connection, on the one hand religion in Japan as part of the global religious subsystem is shown to be engaged in border negotiation with dominant global subsystems such as politics, secular education, and science. On the other hand, the religious subsystem in Japan tries to reposition itself within the global society and to find new legitimation by addressing pressing global problems such as war, the environmental crisis, poverty, and social alienation left unsolved by the dominant subsystems.
