Posts tagged: japan
More so a Haiti reference, but let’s just face the inevitable future of Japan’s “disaster relief care packages”
Or even worse, pray for them. Yeah, helpful. Thanks.
Halfway relevant:
Most Japanese people do not exclusively identify themselves as adherents of a single religion; rather, they incorporate elements of various religions in a syncretic fashion known as shinbutsu shūgō. Shinbutsu shūgō officially ended with the Shinto and Buddhism Separation Order of 1886, but continues in practice. Shinto and Japanese Buddhism are therefore best understood not as two completely separate and competing faiths, but rather as a single, rather complex religious system.
Japan grants full religious freedom, allowing minority religions such as Christianity, Islam and Sikhism to be practiced. Figures that state 84% to 96% of Japanese adhere to Shinto and Buddhism are not based on self-identification but come primarily from birth records, following a longstanding practice of officially associating a family line with a local Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine. About 70% of Japanese profess no religious membership, according to Johnstone (1993:323), 84% of the Japanese claim no personal religion. And according to Demerath (2001:138), 64% do not believe in God, and 55% do not believe in Buddha. Japanese streets are decorated on Tanabata, Obon and Christmas.
Wikipedia/Christianity in Japan:
Christianity is a minority religion in Japan, with less than 1% and possibly less than one-half of one percent of the Japanese population claiming Christian belief or affiliation. Nearly all known traditional denominations of Christianity, including Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Orthodox Christianity are represented in Japan today, with no restrictions on evangelism.
Post-earthquake Japan, by the numbers (via Kyodo News):
- 433 confirmed dead
- 784 people reported missing
- Amount of radiation released inside a control room at Fukushima nuclear power plant “1,000 times normal”
- 3,000 residents ordered to evacuate from a 10-mile radius and a 3-mile radius around two nuclear power plants, respectively
- 3,400 buildings damaged or completely destroyed
- 200 fires
- 181 nursing or welfare homes damaged
- 1,800 homes destroyed in Fukushima Prefecture
- 5.57 million households without power
- 1 million households without running water
- 50,000 Self-Defense Forces deployed to aid residents and municipalities in rescue efforts
- Nine expressways closed
- At least 464 domestic flights cancelled
- More than 120,000 people in Tokyo unable to return home due to suspension of mass transit services and / or traffic congestion
Japan’s Strict Building Codes Saved Lives
March 11th is now “Engineer Appreciation Day”
^Should be
and urban planners, public safety officials, and government regulators who advocate for these codes to be put on the books.
The Dogū has been speculated to be an ancient astronaut that visited earth during the Jōmon period of Ancient Japan; it shows features claimed to resemble a space suit, goggles and a space helmet.
