Global or transnational expansion of Japanese religions? an analysis centering on case studies from Brazil

Up to the World War II, Japanese religious expansion happened alongside the colonialist politics of Japan’s empire as well as through migration and missionary efforts. Later on it was immensely helped by the Japanese prosperity from the 1960s throughout the 80s. Some religious organizations managed to get a reasonable membership in different countries to the point that scholars now talk about the globalization of Japanese religions. This presentation will show the struggle of some Japanese religious groups to move from local to national scale, and eventually to the international arena. However, the focus will be on case studies from Brazil to demonstrate first that there is a difference between transnational and global propagation. It will contend that, although globalization opened innumerable possibilities for religion, it is an exaggeration to apply the word “global” to Japan’s overseas religious expansion, excepting from Soka Gakkai International. Also a case of the reconstruction of Ishizuchi beliefs and practices in Brazil will serve to illustrate how the global has been shaped locally at the same time as the local is ceaselessly subject to national and global influences.