Foreigners at Jinja

One of the year-opening articles in the January 1^st issue of Jinja Shinpō is by a priest born in 1941 who currently works at Meiji Jingū. He observes that many foreigners, of all kinds, visit Meiji Jingū every year, and that they all seem to enjoy the experience. He says that the department where he works — Meiji Jingū’s International Shinto Culture Research Center — has focused on introducing the sacred forest and helping people to feel the sacred power within nature, and on the ideals of the kami of the jinja, Meiji Tennō and Empress Shōken, particularly their commitment to peace.

He believes that all these visitors are attracted to Japan by Japanese culture, which is based in Shinto and Buddhism and values harmony between people, between nations, and between people and nature. He closes with a wish that even more foreigners might visit Meiji Jingū this year, and that international friendship will further improve.

This is the article that the editors at Jinja Shinpō chose to place first in the double-page spread of these articles, so this is how they wanted to lead. While these articles are all entirely personal opinions, the placement of this one, and its author’s position, are significant. I think this does, in fact, broadly reflect the Shinto community’s position on this issue.

Most priests would like foreigners to visit jinja, and experience Japanese culture — particularly the Shinto parts. The complaints that I hear are about people who do not pay any attention to the etiquette (tour groups from mainland China are most often mentioned as the culprits), rather than about foreigners in general. (Of course, those are the complaints that I hear.) Indeed, the fact that Jinja Honchō is paying me to help jinja across Japan improve their provision for foreign visitors is also good evidence of this.

This also seems to extend to long-term residents of Japan — and not just me. Most people in the Shinto community seem to be positive about foreign residents, or naturalised immigrants, participating in the life of their local jinja.

The reference to complaints about people who do not behave correctly is also important. They want people to come and experience Japanese culture, which means actually experiencing that culture. To do that, you need to follow “traditional” Japanese practices. At most jinja, “traditional” does not really need scare quotes — even the bits that were formalised in the Taishō period are now over a century old, which is definitely old enough to be traditional. However, I think this attitude is much more broadly present in Japan, and in other cases “traditional” practices can include cosplay, which really does need the scare quotes.

Going back to the content of the article, harmony between people relies on all the people in a group making compromises, both to fit into a group, and to enable other people to fit into the group. The first of these is the notorious Japanese conformity. An example of the second would be the extensive support for disabled people travelling around Tokyo, to the point that disabled people have said that it is now one of the easiest cities in the world to get around. (Smaller cities do not have the budget to do things so quickly, but I hear that progress is being made there as well.)

The Japanese expect the same from foreign visitors, and jinja share this attitude. Foreigners are welcome, and Jinja Honchō and certain specific jinja are working on ways to make things easier for them. But they are also expected to adapt to the practices of the places they are visiting, or living.