2 - Globalization and the Marketing Strategies of Japanese New Religions Abroad with Special Reference to Brazil, Africa and Thailand

Summary

Abstract This chapter discusses the following themes: i) The complex motivating factors behind the globalization of Japanese new religious movements (JNRMs). Motivational factors changed over time; those of the pre-World War II era differing substantially from those of the postwar period to the present. ii) The aims/goals of globalization. These again changed over time. iii) Marketing strategies of the globalization era. In some cases a Japanese blueprint was/is followed, in others situational logic and reflexive modes of syncretism greatly influenced the making of these strategies. iv) The issue of sustainability, which arises for many reasons, including the principle of permitting multiple memberships which movements have adopted, some reluctantly like Sōka Gakkai. Furthermore, many JNRMs lack important instruments for the transmission of their teachings and values, such as rites of passage, and institutions such as schools, clinics, hospitals and leisure facilities on which socially integrated and dynamic communities are built. v) The influence of JNRMs on the course, form and content of the process of globalization.

Keywords: Japanese new religious movements, motivation, marketing strategies, syncretism, Sekai Kyūsei Kyō, jōrei, sustainability

The multi-directional face of modern globalization

Globalization is envisioned here as multi-directional. For some time now globalization in its various forms, including its economic, cultural and religious forms (Clarke 2000), has been moving in all directions perhaps most noticeably from East to West, rather than from the West to the rest of the world, as was once largely the case. Some have argued this is profoundly modifying the ethos and worldview of the latter (Campbell 1999) and, it may be added, the way we think of and define religion.

Moreover, in the contemporary world the boundaries of religions, notwithstanding the attempts made by their officials and spokespersons in the past decade to police them more efficiently, are noticeably much more porous than was the case only 50 years ago. This change is due as much as anything else to the developments in information technology and communications, large scale economic migration and the new forms of religious pluralism that have emerged as a result of these developments. Thus, although the labels Western/Occidental and Eastern/Oriental, or African or Middle Eastern are still sometimes applied to religions, these labels are becoming increasingly obsolete.