With a declining population, shrinking congregations, and growing economic pressures, Japan's Buddhist temples are struggling to stay relevant. As more temples are sold or closed, questions arise about the future of religion in modern Japan.

A 370-year-old temple on the Chita Peninsula, with its classic curved roof, timber-frame walls, spacious tatami prayer hall, and elaborately decorated altar, is on the market for 482 million yen (€2.66 million). The estate agent's pitch promises dismantling by "expert heritage craftsmen" and delivery anywhere in Japan, where it would be restored into a "stunning" two- or three-bedroom home. This sale marks the end of its role in the local community, but it is a better fate than many other places of worship.

There are around 77,000 temples across Japan, but as many as 17,000 no longer have a full-time resident priest. Congregations have shrunk, particularly in rural districts experiencing rapid depopulation, and financial pressures have taken their toll. Many temples are being sold off or simply shuttered and left to deteriorate.

Tomomi Iwayama took over the abandoned Ganshu-ji temple in Odawara, a coastal town about 80 kilometers southwest of Tokyo, a decade ago. Today, he is the abbot of a growing congregation. "The temple had no abbot for 70 years before I arrived because it was just so difficult to operate, and it has taken me until now to get it financially back on track," he told DW. "Even in a relatively large urban area such as Odawara, which has around 200,000 residents, it has been very hard. In the countryside, it is much more difficult."

Iwayama's biggest problem is the country's shrinking population: fewer worshippers and falling demand for funerals and other traditional rites make it harder to finance the temple's upkeep. He has worked hard to reach out to the local community and has had success selling plots in the temple graveyard. One innovation is the temple's "smart graveyard," where families scan a card, and a robotic system recovers a relative's ashes from the columbarium.

Temples in rural areas face far greater challenges. "Young people in villages usually leave to go to university, and then they find a job in one of the big cities, so they rarely go back," Iwayama said. "Maybe they will go back once a year to pay their respects to their ancestors at the village temple, but that is not enough for the temple to get by on." When the head priest retires, his children are unlikely to take over, leading to closure.

Despite these challenges, Iwayama denies that religion in Japan is following the same path as in the West, where Christian congregation numbers have plummeted. "I sense there is still a lot of demand in Japan for Buddhism," he said, contrasting fast-paced, technology-focused lives with the serenity people seek. "Buddhism is a style of living, of an enlightened person. A lot of people are looking for that. And while the traditional rituals of funerals and anniversaries are declining and that revenue is shrinking, we are finding that more people want to take part in traditional temple cuisine cooking classes, meditation, and other things we can offer."

Temples that cannot adapt to offer experiences more in tune with modern Japan are at risk of closing, said Joey Stockerman, co-founder of the Mokomoko online real estate service. "We have had a temple on our site in the past, and we were approached by a foreign potential buyer, so there is certainly interest when these properties become available," he said.

Some foreigners are doing their best to protect Japan's religious heritage. American journalist and author Jake Adelstein is currently a Zen priest at Zenshoin Temple in Tokyo's Toshima Ward and is training to become an abbot. "I do not think that Japanese are becoming less religious; I believe they are becoming fewer because of population decline and they are becoming less wealthy because of the economic situation," he said. "Families want to keep the grave plot that they have had for generations, but for many of them it is just too expensive to maintain, and they often live a long way away, so they are unable to regularly visit to pay their respects."

The annual fee for a grave can be up to 100,000 yen, while memorials and other rites add to the financial burden. "Young people are not interested in a career as a priest because temples earn so little money, so there are positions that cannot be filled, and that is especially a problem in the countryside," Adelstein explained. Some temples have amalgamated operations and share a priest, but that will become more difficult in the future.

Zenshoin Temple has started vegetarian cooking classes and Zen meditation sessions to appeal to the local community, and Adelstein hopes that will be enough to keep the temple open. "The training to become an abbot is very tough, and the economics of a temple today often just do not add up, but I see it as a critical part of this society and this nation," he said.

Source: www.dw.com