The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics'.
Showing 1-4 of 79 pages in this dissertation.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Description

How do religions and nationalism interact in secular democracies? With its history of nationalism based on religious ideologies, and the subsequent forced separation of state and religion, Japan provides a valuable case to examine how religion and nationalism interact and affect the politics of a secular state. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand and synthesize the divide within the literature regarding the idea that Shinto is fundamentally nationalist in nature. Due to Shinto's historical ties to Japanese nationalism, it is clear that religion and nationalism played a role in Japanese politics in the past. However, with Japan's transition … continued below

Physical Description

vi, 72 pages

Creation Information

Dewell Gentry, Hope Ashley August 2021.

Context

This dissertation is part of the collection entitled: UNT Theses and Dissertations and was provided by the UNT Libraries to the UNT Digital Library, a digital repository hosted by the UNT Libraries. It has been viewed 59 times. More information about this dissertation can be viewed below.

Who

People and organizations associated with either the creation of this dissertation or its content.

Author

Chair

Committee Members

Publisher

Rights Holder

For guidance see Citations, Rights, Re-Use.

  • Dewell Gentry, Hope Ashley

Provided By

UNT Libraries

The UNT Libraries serve the university and community by providing access to physical and online collections, fostering information literacy, supporting academic research, and much, much more.

About | Browse this Partner

Contact Us

Corrections Questions

What

Descriptive information to help identify this dissertation. Follow the links below to find similar items on the Digital Library.

Degree Information

Description

How do religions and nationalism interact in secular democracies? With its history of nationalism based on religious ideologies, and the subsequent forced separation of state and religion, Japan provides a valuable case to examine how religion and nationalism interact and affect the politics of a secular state. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand and synthesize the divide within the literature regarding the idea that Shinto is fundamentally nationalist in nature. Due to Shinto's historical ties to Japanese nationalism, it is clear that religion and nationalism played a role in Japanese politics in the past. However, with Japan's transition to democracy and the constitutional provision of the separation between religion and state, religion's effect on nationalism in Japan has become blurred contemporarily. In order to explore these relationships between Shinto, nationalism, and Japanese politics, I investigate how political groups and religious organizations influence nationalist sentiment in political institutions and public opinion in Japan using the Japanese Value Orientations survey and an original dataset. I find that even though the evidence is mounting against the accuracy around the idea of State Shinto and the fundamentally nationalist nature of Shinto, the narrative persists. The existence of nationalist circles perpetuates these narratives, regardless of the truthfulness of the association between Shinto and nationalism because this narrative serves as a benefit to some groups. Shinto may not be automatically nationalist, but there are still nationalistic Shinto practitioners. The description of Shinto as inherently nationalist is not likely to go away while that description still serves a purpose.

Physical Description

vi, 72 pages

Language

Item Type

Identifier

Unique identifying numbers for this dissertation in the Digital Library or other systems.

Collections

This dissertation is part of the following collection of related materials.

UNT Theses and Dissertations

Theses and dissertations represent a wealth of scholarly and artistic content created by masters and doctoral students in the degree-seeking process. Some ETDs in this collection are restricted to use by the UNT community.

About | Browse this Collection

What responsibilities do I have when using this dissertation?

Digital Files

When

Dates and time periods associated with this dissertation.

Creation Date

  • August 2021

Added to The UNT Digital Library

  • Aug. 26, 2021, 8:08 p.m.

Description Last Updated

  • April 5, 2022, 2:56 p.m.

Usage Statistics

When was this dissertation last used?

Yesterday: 0
Past 30 days: 0
Total Uses: 59
More Statistics

Interact With This Dissertation

Here are some suggestions for what to do next.

Start Reading

Thumbnail image of item number 1 in: 'The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics'.
Thumbnail image of item number 2 in: 'The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics'.
Thumbnail image of item number 3 in: 'The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics'.
Thumbnail image of item number 4 in: 'The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics'.

PDF Version Also Available for Download.

Citations, Rights, Re-Use

International Image Interoperability Framework

IIF Logo

We support the IIIF Presentation API

Links for Robots

Helpful links in machine-readable formats.

Archival Resource Key (ARK)

International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)

Metadata Formats

Images

URLs

Stats

Dewell Gentry, Hope Ashley. The Strategic Use of Religion in a Secular State: The Impact of Religious Organizations on Japanese Politics, dissertation, August 2021; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1833431/: accessed May 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .

Back to Top of Screen