Research Paper Draft JS4225

Okay I thought of doing this:

"How does religion shape Japanese identity?"

There are two ways: I also want to argue that perception is important when it comes to addressing issues of identity. So I might split this into two - identity from without (by people who are other than Japanese) and from within (people who are Japanese).

There are going to be lots of limitations, firstly I am going by mainstream identity. I mean, we work on the assumption that most Japanese identify themselves as Japanese. So my question is does religion, or a lack of it, contribute to a common identity?

I think maybe the perception thing will be repetitive here....or maybe not. we will see how. because from outside ppl might identify J'ese with Shinto while it might not be the case today, especially as young people might not think of themselves as Shinto anymore. or it might be slightly different, like just that Japan is the birth place of Shinto etc.

I want to use this because religion is rarely brought into the discussion when looking at Japanese identity or nationalism like what makes me japanese kinda thing, because it's just not a popular thing, but i think that it might contribute in some ways, maybe even negatively, and explain stuff like why Islam and Christianity or Hinduism is not popular in Japan because it is not associated with Japan.

Okay something like that.

My alternative is i want to study naturalised people - people who have come to work in japan and end up naturalising as Japanese citizens like Milton! hurhurhurhur. But I don' tknow what to investigate. What I'm curious is they will never be Japanese by blood, which is something that cannot be ignored because we can see that being Japanese by blood is something that a lot of Japanese feel is important (kanako-san!) and personally I feel that it is a race thing also. A blood thing la. So.....it's like there's a difference between being Japanese and being called japanese only by name, by the state. So how do they feel?

But basically that's all I am wondering. I don't really know what other issues I would examine.

maybe i should read the newsweek article first.