January 5 & 7, 2025
Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru together with several Cabinet ministers visited Ise-jingu Shrine in Mie’s Ise City on January 6, following the visit by leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, “Ishin” party, and the Democratic Party for the People two days earlier.
The act of visiting Ise-jingu Shrine by the prime minister and other Cabinet members clearly runs counter to the constitutional principle of separation of state and religion. In addition, opposition leaders visiting the shrine should be criticized for lacking an understanding of the separation of state and religion and the negative history of the prewar/wartime state-sanctioned Shinto system.
In pre-war and wartime Japan, under the aegis of the Imperial Court, the state Shinto system was used to deify the Emperor and instill in the minds of the general public the belief that “Japan is a Divine Land”. This system played a role in setting up soldiers, who were killed on duty, as “war gods” and mobilizing the public for the war of aggression.
Ise-jingu, in particular, stood at the pinnacle of the state Shinto system as a shrine dedicated to Amaterasu Omikami (Sun Goddess), the ancestral god of the Imperial Family.
After the war, under the postwar Japanese Constitution stipulating the separation of state and religion in Article 20, Ise-jingu became essentially the same as other religious institutions. The visit to Ise-jingu Shrine by Cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, gives to the people an impression that the shrine is “still” a special facility. Christian groups and some other civil groups criticize that act for seriously undermining the constitutional principle.
Successive Ise-jingu priests have served as advisors to Japan’s largest pro-constitutional revisionist, rightist group Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference) which glorifies Japan’s past war of aggression as a “just war for Asian liberation”. This indicates that the shrine seeks to revive the prewar era ideology.
The act of visiting Ise-jingu Shrine by the prime minister and other Cabinet members clearly runs counter to the constitutional principle of separation of state and religion. In addition, opposition leaders visiting the shrine should be criticized for lacking an understanding of the separation of state and religion and the negative history of the prewar/wartime state-sanctioned Shinto system.
In pre-war and wartime Japan, under the aegis of the Imperial Court, the state Shinto system was used to deify the Emperor and instill in the minds of the general public the belief that “Japan is a Divine Land”. This system played a role in setting up soldiers, who were killed on duty, as “war gods” and mobilizing the public for the war of aggression.
Ise-jingu, in particular, stood at the pinnacle of the state Shinto system as a shrine dedicated to Amaterasu Omikami (Sun Goddess), the ancestral god of the Imperial Family.
After the war, under the postwar Japanese Constitution stipulating the separation of state and religion in Article 20, Ise-jingu became essentially the same as other religious institutions. The visit to Ise-jingu Shrine by Cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, gives to the people an impression that the shrine is “still” a special facility. Christian groups and some other civil groups criticize that act for seriously undermining the constitutional principle.
Successive Ise-jingu priests have served as advisors to Japan’s largest pro-constitutional revisionist, rightist group Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference) which glorifies Japan’s past war of aggression as a “just war for Asian liberation”. This indicates that the shrine seeks to revive the prewar era ideology.
