A MULTI-DIMENSIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF PUBLIC RELIGION: WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO THE YASUKUNI SHRINE

In considering religio-political problems, the term public religion has been utilized by not a few scholars during the last decade. The Yasukuni Shrine, the largest memorial institution for the war dead in Japan, is a typical case in the discourse on public religion, which has been discussed from various viewpoints in many contexts. I propose to analyze the issue of the Yasukuni Shrine in a triangular scheme that relates three realms of the social: politics, religion, and culture. Manifestations of public religion in the broadest sense can be analyzed as forms of inter-mobilization between these three camps. Further, mobilization occurs within several spheres, i.e., the state, political society, civil society, folk society and global society. This wide scope allows analyzing the so-called Yasukuni problem as well as other religio-political problems multi-dimensionally. This approach, supposedly, leads to a better understanding of the issue and, ultimately, to a more stable situation.