Buddhist Temples Get Gimmicky

Buddhist temples in Japan are struggling to stay relevant.

The temples are offering – concerts, discos, yoga classes, tea houses – and such to attract visitors.

Japan has about 94 million registered Buddhists. They have about the same number of registered Shintoists. Add a few million Christians and the number comes to nearly 200 million.

Problem is, Japan only has 120+ million people. Japanese can change religions with the seasons and rites of passage.

Funerals are when Japanese go to the temple.

And now, many of Japan’s 75,000 Buddhist temples are on the verge of bankruptcy.

The temples are trying whatever to get people to come …and then convert them.

Cafes…

Theological seminars in English for foreigners.

Buddhist sermons streamed on the internet….wow, where do I subscibe?

Pipe organs and western-style weddings.

Web sites with promotional ideas for monks who are fresh out…and to take funeral orders.

When Japan was rolling in sushi in the 1980s, the temples could charge as much as 2 million yen ($20,000) for a funeral. But, like life, all things come to an end.

The bubble burst and the income at the temples stopped coming in.

When Jesus took people away from the Jewish temples and business crashed in the first century, the Rabbis put him to death.

The buddhist temples have no such person to see die. And if they did, they could offer him or her a funeral, the temple’s specialty.

What do you think?