LECTURER:
Ernils Larsson
(Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Uppsala University)
DATE:
October 18, 2024 (Friday)
13:00-14:30 (JST)
VENUE:
東北大学・川内北キャンパス
マルチメディア教育研究棟 6階
Tohoku Univ., Kawauchi Campus
Multimedia Education and Research Complex, 6F
(For directions, please click here)
This English language event is open to anyone who is interested. Registration is not required（本講演は英語にて行われる。登録不要）。
ABSTRACT:
This lecture will introduce the legal disputes surrounding the interpretation of “religion” as a category within Japanese law. The terms “religion” and “religious” (shūkyō, shūkyōteki/shūkyōjō) appear in two articles of Japan’s 1947 Constitution, yet they are never explicitly defined. Similarly, the Religious Juridical Persons Law, first enacted in 1951, establishes a detailed framework for how religious organizations can incorporate and function within Japanese society, but it also fails to provide a clear definition of “religion.” As a result, the responsibility for defining religion has fallen to the Japanese judiciary, which, in adjudicating lawsuits involving interactions between religious organizations and public entities, has at times presented conflicting interpretations of the term. In this lecture, Larsson will provide an overview of several key rulings and discuss their implications in relation to broader political debates, including the role of Shinto in postwar national identity.
ABOUT THE LECTURER:
Ernils Larsson is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society at Uppsala University and is affiliated with the Organization for Advanced Research and Development at Kokugakuin University. His current research project examines how Shrine Shinto actors have negotiated the constitutional principle of secularism in postwar Japan. Larsson holds a PhD in the history of religions from Uppsala University.
The event is organized by the Tohoku University Graduate School of International Cultural Studies (Dept. of Japanese Religion and Intellectual History), and co-hosted by the Graduate School of Arts and Letters (Dept. of Innovative Japanese Studies).
For more information, please contact <klautau@tohoku.ac.jp>
