Remembrance services held online. Zen meditation apps. Buddhist temple matchmaking services.
As the pandemic of coronavirus causes institutions around the world to change the way they do things, these new efforts are some of the ways in which Buddhist organizations are Japan trying to survive. Their temples are part of the landscape: there are about 77,000, more than the number of ubiquitous resource sources of the country.
COVID-19 has caused further pain to Buddhism groups that have already struggled in recent years due to the declining population in Japan and the great interest in religion among the young people. One estimate is that total temple revenue has declined in the five years to 2020. And now the virus has kept believers at home, reducing donations they make for services such as monuments to the deceased.
Buddhist temples have flourished in Japan for over a thousand years. But they need money to work, and the pandemic has prompted some priests and monks to think of new ways of generating income. It mirrors the way in which businesses around the world from travel to food and sales are evolving as the limitations of COVID-19 affect their normal business.
‘Cloud-sit’
Ryosokuin, a Zen temple with more than 660 years of history in Kyoto, is one such innovator. By suspending services such as monuments and a drop in tourism, the organization backed their online work. He has developed a reflection app that has been downloaded more than 15,000 times and ultimately intends to make money, and has set up an online zen meditation community called UnXe, means “sitting in the clouds.”
“When we lost visitors and donations fell, we realized that our usual way of supporting our work no longer works,” said Toryo Ito, vice-high priest at the temple. “We need to adopt a management style that meets the times.”
Buddhism has a history dating back to the 6th century in Japan, but few times it has posed such great challenges. More than a third of temples may be extinct by 2040 as the population ages, according to Kenji Ishii, a professor of religious studies at Kokugakuin University in Tokyo.
Temple revenue is also falling. The likely total figure fell by about 51% from 2015 to ¥ 263 billion in 2020, according to estimates by Hidenori Ukai, the high priest at Shokakuji temple in Kyoto and a freelance journalist.
The pandemic is contributing to financial difficulties across a wide range of Japanese society. As the economy recovers, a state of emergency in cities began in January putting pressure on consumer spending. And businesses that serve face-to-face customers such as retailers have been hit particularly hard, resulting in a number of breakdowns for restaurants and hotels.
Tsukiji Hongwanji, a four-year-old temple near Tokyo’s ancient fish market, is another group trying to make the most of the virus ’era. He started online memorial services in May last year for families who do not want gatherings for the deceased, and has held about 70 such events, according to Yugen Yasunaga, production director and priest at the temple.
The group is also venturing into areas unfamiliar with traditionally set temples, such as games-making services, a café and yoga classes, said Yasunaga, who worked in a major Japanese bank for more than two decades before he began his career at Tsukiji Hongwanji.
“Just as Amazon.com responds to the different needs of online shoppers, a temple can do the same,” he said.
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