Shinto

==Demographics==
[[File:Guji Francesco Brigante.jpg|thumb|A Shinto rite carried out at a jinja in [[San Marino]], Southern Europe]]
Most Japanese participate in several religious traditions,{{sfn|Earhart|2004|pp=4, 214}} with Breen and Teeuwen noting that, "with few exceptions", it is not possible to differentiate between Shintoists and Buddhists in Japan.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=2}} The main exceptions are members of minority religious groups, including Christianity, which promote exclusivist worldviews.{{sfn|Earhart|2004|p=215}} Determining the proportions of the country's population who engage in Shinto activity is hindered by the fact that, if asked, Japanese people will often say "I have no religion".{{sfn|Earhart|2004|p=215}} Many Japanese avoid the term "religion", in part because they dislike the connotations of the word which most closely matches it in the Japanese language, {{lang|ja-Latn|shūkyō}}. The latter term derives from {{lang|ja-Latn|shū}} ("sect") and {{lang|ja-Latn|kyō}} ("doctrine").{{sfn|Nelson|1996|p=8}}

Official statistics show Shinto to be Japan's largest religion, with over 80 per cent of its population engaging in Shinto activities.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=1}}<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url = http://www.stat.go.jp/data/nenkan/back64/zuhyou/y2322a00.xls|title = 宗教団体数，教師数及び信者数|date = 2015|access-date = August 25, 2015|website = Statistical Yearbook of Japan|publisher = Statistics Japan, [[Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications]]|archive-date = 10 December 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151210220151/http://www.stat.go.jp/data/nenkan/back64/zuhyou/y2322a00.xls|url-status = live}}</ref> Conversely, in questionnaires only a small minority of Japanese describe themselves as "Shintoists."{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=1}} This indicates that a far larger number of people engage in Shinto activities than cite Shinto as their religious identity.{{sfn|Breen|Teeuwen|2010|p=1}} There are no formal rituals to become a practitioner of "folk Shinto". Thus, "Shinto membership" is often estimated counting only those who do join organized Shinto sects.{{sfn|Williams|Bhar|Marty|2004|pp=4–5}} Shinto has about 81,000 shrines and about 85,000 priests in the country.<ref name=":0" /> According to surveys carried out in 2006<ref name="Dentsu2006">Dentsu Communication Institute, Japan Research Center: ''[http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/9460.html Sixty Countries' Values Databook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227112501/http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/9460.html |date=27 February 2018 }}'' (世界60カ国価値観データブック).</ref> and 2008,<ref name="NHK2008">{{cite web|url=http://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/summary/research/report/2009_05/090505.pdf|title=2008 NHK survey of religion in Japan — 宗教的なもの にひかれる日本人〜ISSP国際比較調査（宗教）から〜|publisher=NHK Culture Research Institute|access-date=19 October 2017|archive-date=12 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412074304/http://www.nhk.or.jp/bunken/summary/research/report/2009_05/090505.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> less than 40% of the population of Japan identifies with an organised religion: around 35% are [[Buddhism|Buddhists]], 30% to 40% are members of [[Shinto sects and schools#Shintō inspired religions|Shinto sects and derived religions]]. In 2008, 26% of the participants reported often visiting Shinto shrines, while only 16.2% expressed belief in the existence of {{lang|ja-Latn|kami}} in general.<ref name="NHK2008" />

===Shinto outside Japan ===
{{main|Overseas Shinto}}
[[File:Karafuto Shrine.JPG|thumb|right|The Karafuto Shrine in the Sakhalin Region]]
The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries were marked by the expansion of the [[Empire of Japan]], which also led to the spread of Shinto in the colonized territories.{{sfn|Hardacre|2017|pp=431—432}} In total, from 1868 to 1945, 1,640 shrines were built in territories under Japanese control.{{sfn|Hardacre|2017|pp=431—432}}{{sfn|Nakajima|2010|p=22}} In addition, starting in 1885, Japanese began to move to American [[Hawaii]], most of whom left Japan for economic reasons; Since 1908, [[Japanese Brazilians|emigration to Brazil]] also began, where the Japanese worked on coffee plantations. The emigrants built shrines to preserve their culture and worship traditional deities.{{sfn|Picken|2011|pp=273—274}}{{sfn|Hardacre|2017|pp=404—406}}

{{lang|ja-Latn|Jinja}} outside Japan are termed {{lang|ja-Latn|kaigai jinja}} ("overseas shrines"), a term coined by {{ill|Ogasawara Shozo|ja|小笠原省三}}.{{sfn|Suga|2010|p=48}} When the Japanese Empire collapsed in the 1940s, there were over 600 {{lang|ja-Latn|jinja}} within its conquered territories, many of which were later disbanded.{{sfn|Suga|2010|p=48}} Japanese migrants have also established {{lang|ja-Latn|jinja}} in countries like Brazil,{{sfn|Suga|2010|pp=59–60}} while Shinto's lack of doctrinal focus has attracted interest from non-Japanese;{{sfn|Picken|2011|p=xiv}} in the United States, for example, [[European Americans]] have played a significant role in introducing Shinto.{{sfn|Picken|2011|p=xiv}}