The September 30th issue of Jinja Shinpō carried several articles about the meetings held around the ceremony to formally start the distribution of Jingū Taima for this season. (The ceremony itself was reported in the previous issue.) One of these meetings is the one at which leading members of the Shinto community talk about ways to encourage more people to receive Jingū Taima.
At that meeting, the person responsible for those activities in Tokyo spoke about their efforts, and complained about influencers spreading false information — so Shinto is just like every other field in that respect. He also made a very interesting observation, based on his personal experience.
He said that he had the impression that young people were becoming more respectful of the kami, but felt that, if they had a kamidana, their lifestyle would mean that they did not venerate it properly. For that reason, they were deliberately avoiding setting one up. And therefore, of course, they were deliberately avoiding asking for a Jingū Taima.
This is eminently plausible. There are no statistics involved, so it is impossible to say how widespread that attitude is, but it could easily be quite common. And it is difficult for the Shinto establishment and community to handle.
First, the young people are right about their lifestyles. Venerating the kamidana twice a day, with offerings, is simply not going to happen given the way modern life is organised. Second, the Shinto establishment can hardly say “Oh, the important thing is to have it. Don’t worry about whether you are venerating the kami properly. They don’t mind”.
On the other hand, if you do not have a kamidana, you can’t venerate it. If you are going to get more people performing household matsuri, first you need to get kamidana into the homes. It is extremely unlikely that people will go straight into a habit of venerating twice a day. That’s simply not how people work. The classic pattern also assumes that someone (the wife) is around to do all the preparations and tidying up, and if you live alone and work, or are in a couple who both work, it is probably not practical. No matter how much you want to, you won’t be able to.
To be honest, I suspect that the Shinto establishment will have to bite this bullet, and come up with less onerous patterns of veneration to endorse as officially acceptable. For example, you might say that the kamidana should be venerated with offerings on weekends, and that during the week it is acceptable to just quickly pay your respects. Doing that before leaving and on returning could be held up as the ideal, as could veneration with offerings on both Saturday and Sunday (and national holidays — except people are likely to be away on those days).
The problem with this is internal resistance. Which parts of kamidana veneration can be changed to adapt to the modern day, and which bits have to be preserved? There would have to be internal debate, and someone would have to take the lead and change something.
I am not going to hold my breath, but there is enough recognition that there is a problem for me to hope for movement over the next few years.