Female leadership in Japanese contemporary religious organizations: The case of Shinnyoen

Women’s rise to formal leadership roles in new Japanese religions has attracted considerable scholarly attention. However, few attempts have been made to examine women’s formal religious leadership in contemporary settings, and little has been said about how their authority is constructed, supported, and legitimated within their organization. This paper examines the case of Shinnyoen and its current female leader, Itō Shinsō. The theoretical framework adopted for the examination draws on Weber’s definition of charisma and its routinization and the organizational theory by Etzioni. The analysis shows that Itō Shinsō’s effectiveness in religious leadership embodies the internal socio-cultural and normative organizational characteristics of the group. In particular, the level of compliance in highly regulated top-down and bottom-up social relationships as well as moral commitment reveal the essential relational property of Itō Shinsō’s charismatic leadership.