After September 11, 2001, there have been many occasions in which people involved in new types of spirituality culture that are different from organized religions gather and pray for peace. It is natural that new questions arise of what kind of people they are and what kind of possibilities they have.
I assume these people belong to, what I collectively call, new spirituality movements and culture or, more simply, new spirituality culture. There are people who also get involved in new spiritual culture, but have little interest in the socio-political activitiesy for peace. In the west,they are often regarded as composing New Age movements. But in reality they are very diverse. It is true that mainly they are oriented to self-improvement and self-actualization. It sometimes means that they are simply accepting the ideology justifying the global market economy system. But there are also others who have critical views against the present global economic and political system as well as neo-liberal ideology.
In this paper, I take up, as examples,some of those who are involved in new spirituality culture in Japan and who at the same time wish to change the present acquisitive political and economical system of the world. Some of them are oriented to ecological issues, whereas others are interested in peaceful child rearing and education. They have many positive possibilities but critical assessment is also necessary. In some sense, they are not very much different from those people engaging in new spirituality culture in a more privatistic or more nationalistic manner. Further study will be required for entangling this complicated situation.
