One Year into the Pandemic: Religious Institutions in Japan Responding to the New Normal

The goal of this paper is to discuss adaptations or alternatives that Buddhist religious institutions in Japan have formulated to help communities develop the capacity to cope with the crisis and risk generated by COVID-19. Qualitative data and observations of online information were collected from Buddhist temples of established religious traditions and three Buddhist-related Japanese new religious movements: Sōka Gakkai, Risshō kōseikai, and Shinnyoen between February 2020 and February 2021. The investigation uses Douglas’ (1994) interpretative model of risk and explores those cosmological beliefs and micro and macro strategies that religious institutions have engendered that are conducive to cohesion and stability. Findings show that Japanese established and new religions alike swiftly responded by embracing digital technology to continue their core function of cohesion-providers for their social and spiritual communities. Overall, Japanese Buddhist religious institutions’ responses have displayed an interesting evolution with a shift from embodied to disembodied religious practices that hold the potential to continue far beyond the ease in COVID-19-related social restrictions.