ABSTRACT
In this chapter an attempt will be made to summarize the various types, the media and the varying 'volume of impact' of explicit religious teachings available to the residents of Shitayama-cho. As will clearly emerge, the direct influence of religious organizations in moulding their religious beliefs is small. The family is obviously the most important milieu for the transmission of such ideas. Another factor which in Britain could not be ignored is the school, but in Japan the influence of the school in the formation of religious beliefs is small. Before the war, largely by means of ritual but also to a certain extent by explicit religious teaching, there was inculcated what might be called a religion of nationalism. But this teaching, as we shall see, did not constitute a coherent world-view; it could not become (and, indeed, the pre-war Ministry of Education was constantly declaring, in the face of Christian objections, that it was not intended to be) a satisfactory personal religion, capable of dealing with the problems of suffering and guilt and explaining the purpose of human life. Since the war, even this has disappeared and religious teaching of any sort is forbidden in schools provided by the public authority.
