Japanese Religions on the Internet

Erica Baffelli is a Lecturer in Asian Religion at the University of Otago (New Zealand). Both her doctoral research (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, 2005) and her post-doctoral research project as fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) investigated the relationship between the media and ‘image construction’ of Japanese new religious movements. Her research interests lie primarily in the groups’ self-presentation online and offline and in the interaction between religion and popular cultures. Ian Reader, now Professor of Japanese Studies at Manchester and formerly Professor of Religious Studies at Lancaster University, has spent over a quarter of a century researching on religion in Japan. Author of several books (including Religion in Contemporary Japan 1991, Practically Religious 1998, Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo 2000 and Making Pilgrimages: Meaning and Practice in Shikoku 2005), he has most recently worked on issues of public representation and marketing of religion both in off- and online contexts. Birgit Staemmler has been a member of Tübingen University Japanese Department’s research focus on Internet and religion since 2000 and is currently working on definitions and contexts of the term ‘Shamanism’ in the Japanese Internet. Her doctoral research focused on a ritual of mediated spirit possession in Japanese new religions and was published as Chinkon Kishin: Mediated Spirit Possession in Japanese New Religions (2009).

• Introduction. Part I. Religion and the Internet in Japan: Overview and Concepts 1,Media and Religion in Japan. Erica Baffelli, Ian Reader and Birgit Staemmler 2. Internet and Religion in Japan: Innovation, Representation and Authority. Erica Baffelli, Ian Reader and Birgit Staemmler Part II. Case Studies 3. The Situation of Japanese Traditional Buddhism in the Web2.0 Era: Who Attacks and who Guards the Religion? Fukamizu, Kenshin 4. Preserving the Dignity of Shinto Shrines in the Age of the Internet: A Social Context Analysis. Kurosaki Hiroyuki 5. The Shikoku Pilgrimage Online: Official Sites, Promotion, Commerce and the Replication of Authority. Ian Reader 6. Pilgrim Leadership Rendered in HTML: Bloggers and the Shikoku Henro. John Shultz 7. Charismatic Blogger? Authority and New Religions on the Web 2.0. Erica Baffelli 8. Caught in the Net: Celebrity Representation and Japanese Religion from Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Benjamin Dorman 9. Shaping Shamanism Online: Patterns of Authority in Wikipedia. Birgit Staemmler 10. Reflexive Self Identification of Internet Users and the Authority of Sōka Gakkai: Analysis of Discourse in Japanese BBS, Ni-channeru. Tamura Takanori and Tamura Daiy Conclusions and Issues for Future Research. Erica Baffelli, Ian Reader and Birgit Staemmler

"The book’s primary contention is that the Japanese version of religion online tends to be "not so much innovative as derivative, and largely an extension of existing offline sources." Thoeretically, the book also contributes to a deeper discussion of the Internet’s impact on religious authority, which, as the editors correctly observe, has been inadequately treated in earlier studies that are also limited by their examples, which come solely from Western religions. This book is essential reading not only for students of Japanese religion, but also for those interested in exploring the global religious implications of the Internet." – Mark MacWilliams – St. Lawrence University, Religious Studies Review 2013