A social role of Buddhism in modern Japan

Abstract

Roles of Buddhist priests were diverse until the early modern period. Priests were very active in all aspects of society since the priesthood was a social rank rather than an occupation. In Japanese case, undifferentiated cannot be undeveloped. However, “modernity” forced to change the priesthood from a social rank into an occupation. Requests of modern society are certainly contrary to the Japanese Buddhist tradition. Because of that, the priests suffered from conflict. How should they be actlve in the modern society？There is an answer in “history”. The priests have distorted “history” in order to believe their social responsibility. Buddhism and Buddhist Studies have divergel since “history”, which is the mere interpretation, has been generalized by means of university education. This was born the illusion that Buddhism has social responsibility.