Religion, religion, everywhere?

If you are one of the nearly 43 million foreign visitors who traveled to Japan in 2025 or the millions who have already visited in 2026, you might be tempted to think the country is intensely religious.

It is hard not to. Religion appears to be…well, everywhere.

Go for a walk through the megacity of Tokyo and you encounter Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines around almost every corner. Travel outside the metroplex and you’ll come across tiny roadside jizō statues and enormous temple complexes in the countryside.

From Sapporo to Kagoshima, you see people washing their hands before approaching a shrine, drawing fortunes, making offerings, bowing, clapping, praying or simply pausing for a moment in front of a shrine or statue while out on a morning walk with their dog before moving on.

So thick is the spiritual infrastructure of Japan that in Kyoto, visitors say they can suffer from “temple fatigue,” which describes the mental and physical exhaustion they feel after visiting too many temples in a short time and the wooden architecture, gardens and Buddha statues begin to blend together. These travelers are, in a sense, complaining about an excess of religion.

And yet, if you ask many Japanese people whether they are religious, you are likely to get a very different answer.

So, which is it? Is Japan highly religious or notably secular?

Religion in East Asia: An orientation to a critical region in global culture and politics

In an increasingly multi-polar world, East Asia’s influence on global trade, technology, pop culture, inter-regional cooperation and potential, wide-ranging conflicts is increasingly evident. 

The region’s importance in understanding the landscape of global religion is sometimes less widely appreciated. 

But spend time in the countries of East Asia — China, Hong Kong, Japan, Mongolia, North and South Korea, and Taiwan — and you will find families burning incense before an ancestor’s grave or visiting a Buddhist temple on a holiday. You will witness a Shinto shrine receiving thousands of visitors at New Year or a Korean Christian congregation filling a high-rise sanctuary on Sunday. 

Reporting on East Asia can quickly run aground, however, when journalists import categories developed elsewhere and assume that religion works the same way in Beijing, Seoul, Taipei or Tokyo as it does in London, Lagos or Los Angeles (and, of course, it operates differently in these places too).

In much of East Asia, people may participate in Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Shinto or local ritual traditions without claiming an exclusive religious identity. Someone may say they have “no religion” while venerating ancestors, visiting temples, making offerings or consulting a religious specialist.

This guide, part of a new series from ReligionLink focusing on different regions in global religion reporting, provides background, resources, relevant stories and sources to help you better understand East Asia’s religious institutions, communities and political contexts.