STATE SHINT? PROJECT FOR SPIRITUAL AND SOCIAL COMMON GOOD

Abstract

In modern Japan, Shinto was defined as a culture rather than a religion to align the freedom of religion with the ideas of the nation-state, making it possible for Shinto to be presented to the public as an obligatory public moral and ritual guide. Katsuhiko Kakei, a professor of Constitutional Law at the Tokyo Imperial University, incorporated the spiritual tendency to depend on the Absolute into Shinto and changed it into a state-religion. The purpose of his project was to restore the spiritual common good of the Japanese, expand it into the social common good, and thereby pursue integral human development and prosperity. This research contributes to rethinking the religious power to promote sustainable prosperity.