In my Asian Philosophy class, my professor asked us this question, “What makes a person religious?”

A student said, “Attending services,” and this answer made me think of my religiosity.

I am an atheist. I am not an atheist.

I would say I am a typical Japanese in terms of religiosity. Whenever my friends ask me if I practice any religion, I would say, “No. I am an atheist.”

Although I use the word “atheist,” I am not essentially an atheist because I believe in God “occasionally.” For western religion practitioners, it feels weird to think, “I believe in God today, but not tomorrow, or even now, but not five minutes later,” though I am completely fine with it, and many other Japanese are.

Please give me a moment to explain what “believing in God occasionally” means. Otherwise, you might carry this idea that Japanese have a wacky and offbeat relationship with God for the rest of your life.

More than half of Japanese are...

The WIN-Gallup International interviewed with more than 50,000 people across the world to measure people’s self-perceptions on beliefs.

Through the interview, they asked the question;

Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person's or a convinced atheist?

Japanese consider themselves as less religious as Americans do (see the chart above.) What hits me on this stats is the fact that more than half of Japanese said they are not religious or “they don’t know,” compared to only 10 percent of Americans did so.

Japanese don’t know much about our beliefs. Is it strange?

I believed in God in an airplane.

Going back to my point, “believing in god occasionally.”

I believed in God just recently during my international flight from Japan to the U.S.. At one point on the air, the plain suddenly started shaking. I felt like I was thrown around the sky and was very nervous. In this horrible situation, what I had in my hands was a “omamori (amulet),” that my grandparents gave me.

This is the omamori I had. (It says, "traffic safety.")

An omamori is a tiny little key chain that is a prayer for a good fortune. Omamori are usually sold at both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Once you get it, you put on or in your purse, wallet, or anything that you always carry with.

I was clutching the omamori and literally said in my head, “God, please save us... please.” In this moment, I did believe the existence of God.

Believing in God and being religious are two different things.

Why did I believe in God in this situation? Because I naturally followed Japanese cultural tradition. My grandparents have told me that if you always have this omamori with you then God will save you from evil. To be clear, my grandparents are not Buddhist or Shintoist, but they believe the traditional practice of omamori. So, I was not exactly praying for a specific god and rather was practicing the cultural tradition.

In this sense, I can clearly separate “believing in God” and “being religious.” In other word, I believe in God (superstitious power) without being religious.

Born Shinto, Married Christian, Buried Buddhists

This is a joke about how Japanese mash different religions together in cultural value. The majority of Japanese do not claim to be religious and attend regular religious observance. Instead, they practice various religious traditions and participate in rituals or ceremonies without the feeling of religiosity.

For example, many Japanese visit a shrine or temple on New Year's Day to pray for the coming year to be filled with happiness, because it is a tradition and something that everyone does regardless of any religious purpose.

Some might say going to temple and praying to God are religious practices and these literally mean you are religious. But, to me, these do not necessarily make me feel religious.

What makes you religious?