ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a Global Repositioning model for the study of Japanese religions under globalization. In the case of the greening of religion in Japan, relativization is shown to affect primarily the constellation of goods mediated by religion. The global appeal of meditation appears to be capable of directly relativizing the structure of legitimation. The full acceptance by Japanese religions of the authority of other social systems leads to their repositioning at the inter-systemic level as secularization. The first, homogenization, implies the uncritical or passive acceptance of external ideas within the religious system, which is rather difficult to trace in the Japanese religious context. The impact of cultural chauvinism on the global repositioning of Japanese religions may also be seen in the politics of inclusion and exclusion underlying these processes. Finally, the global repositioning of Japanese religions at the inter-systemic level also appears to be conditioned by processes of decontextualization.
