The Status of the Individual in Japanese Religions: Implications for Japan's Collectivistic Social Values

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore one of the basic reasons why the Japanese do not appreciate the ideal of individualism even after achieving a high level of industrialization. The author argues, by exploring the weakness of individualistic value orientations in modernized Japan, that Japanese religions provide a major clue. His examination of the status of the individual in Japanese religious values and beliefs in contrast with Christianity reveals that none of the Japanese religious traditions—Buddhism, Confucianism, or Shinto—ultimately legitimates the status of the individual; rather, these religions encourage the submersion of individual identity. He concludes that individualism might be a distinctive social value flourishing only in the West where Christianity upholds the virtue of individualism as an ultimate goal.