ABSTRACT
As has been shown in this book, the Internet in Japan may be a massive and growing entity, but it is also highly fluid and transitional stage at present. As we noted in Chapter 2, one main generalisation that one can make about the Japanese Internet as a whole in religious contexts is that, overall, religious organisations have by and large remained locked in a 1.0 mode, and have as yet not really worked out which way to go forward, while individuals and critics of religion and of specific religious groups and personalities, have been more flexible and have made ample use of the scope for development offered by the so-called Web 2.0, both in terms of developing animated criticisms of and attacks on religion(s) and in terms of establishing themselves as individual authorities on religious matters. Perhaps another valid generalisation at present is that the online can, by and large, be considered to be more derivative than innovative. As various chapters have noted and as we suggested in Part I, much of what is found on the Internet, and specifically this is so of sites associated with established religions, religious practices and religious organisations, is a reflection or replication of what exists offline. Whether it is merely reproduced by organisations wishing to reconfirm their authority (or perhaps lacking any inclination to do other than simply upload existing materials onto non-interactive information sites) or by individuals and users seeking to establish an authority of their own, this pattern of replication rather than innovation is clear. At present, thus, there is not much evidence that the Internet may revive religions; indeed, the decline in levels of religious belonging shown by surveys cited in Chapter 1 has continued throughout the period from the mid-1990s in which the Internet has developed as a major medium in Japan. Nor is there any significant evidence thus far that the Internet is producing new and inventive modes of behaviour and engagement, although it does offer new venues for (pre-existing) pieces of information and issues of criticism and can thereby reach a wider audience.
