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SPECIFICITIES OF GLOBALIZATION 179SPIRITUAL HUNGER AND THE CONSUMPTION OF SPIRITUALITYIN JAPAN (OR: WHILST I SEARCHED FOR MY SOUL IN A SOULLESSMETROPOLIS…)Mohd Naguib RazakNote: This current version has been abridged and simplified bythe author from the original final paper in order to meet thepublication requirements of the Foundation.Shinjuku, TokyoSunday, April 27, 2008I stand here before a 10 th floor hotel window,looking down at the sea of grey concrete structuresbefore me.Of bland low-rise apartments and mundane officeblocks.Away from the soaring skyscrapers.Away from the suggestive lights of Kabukicho.I am here, back in Tokyo again.By myself, of my own volition and my own means.At the very heart of this soulless metropolis.Just six months earlier, I was in the midst of packingup and leaving Tokyo. I had depleted my entire grantfrom the fellowship and all my personal savings. And Iwas nowhere near understanding the subject matter Ihad chosen.I was totally numb and empty within myself. My projectin tatters.In the beginning…It began as a journey to discover, unravel and understand“Spirituality in Japan’s Material Utopia” as my themeand subject matter for a feature-length documentary filmwith an international audience in mind. Nevertheless,it soon became obvious that the funds and resourcesavailable at my disposal during this fellowship simplywould not allow me to produce such a film.Therefore, even before arriving in Japan, I had alreadyrecalibrated my plans to use this fellowship periodonly to discover, unravel and understand my themethoroughly and convincingly in order to then, lateron, produce a documentary film that was exceptional,insightful, fair and far-reaching on this subject-matter,upon a ‘second coming.’For better or for worse, I chose to be based in Tokyobecause of the vast number of contacts, resources andthe network of people I already had here. There was alsoalways something about Tokyo that kept me comingback to it again and again—like a journey to the cuttingedge of civilization, like standing on the precipice ofmega-modern madness, or enduring that final, mostremote mile of understanding about the nature of ourhumanity in this multi-faceted, multi-layered, multinuancedday and age. Tokyo is a place for all that.“Spirituality in Japan’s Material Utopia:” A ThematicDilemmaThis was the title I had arrived in Japan with. It was nodoubt a vast and daunting theme, but one that I feltconvinced enough to be inherently important, globallyrelevant and significantly far-reaching.But I had not yet really factored in the extremecomplexity of the situation in Japan surrounding thistheme in reality, beyond my own superficial estimationsand presumptive formulations.And so I quickly began to realize what an even moredaunting, dizzyingly complicated terrain this was for anuntrained non-scholar like me to navigate. Especiallywith the myriad of material to trawl through, from allsorts of sources, be they libraries, scholars, newspapers,television, journals, and local culture as well as popularculture. Plus a sizable amount of cultural, academic andmedia stereotyping to side step or at least be wary of.To take it all in, one would have to really consider thepolitics of modernization during the late 19 th CenturyMeiji Restoration; the repositioning of Shintoismto State Shintoism and the curbing of local and folkreligions or belief systems; the rise of militarism that ledAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows
180 SPECIFICITIES OF GLOBALIZATIONto Japan’s involvement in World War II; the disastrousend to Japan’s military campaign in World War II;the reversed policies of the American Occupation incountering rising Communist influence in Japan; thesocial efficacy of Buddhism in addressing the need forrites and rituals in certain stages of life; the emergenceof the New Religions, and then the New New Religions(yes, that’s right); culminating with the Sarin gas attackin Tokyo’s subway system by the religious cult group,Aum Shinrikyo; the negative image of religious cultsfollowing that incident; and the long list of text, contextand subtext just go on and on and on (to put it all verysimply).I realized quickly that I didn’t want my work to beoverwhelmed by so much historical baggage and aninconsequential amount of anecdotal detail. I did notwant to spend so much time setting up, explaining orclarifying the circumstances preceding or surroundingthis theme that I would be left with very little space tojudiciously and naturally develop and present my ownconclusions and perspectives.Nor was I interested in a study that had to be limitedby a specific geographical or situational parameter, norreliant upon some compact or useful angle, cliché orstereotype, nor an approach that would fragment thissubject-matter, even though I realized that it may rendersome to see this study as unsubstantive, ambiguous andnon-scientific.More than just for academic research or study, I wantedto tailor it according to the immediate and genuineconcerns of current society in Japan and the rest ofthe world, without creating another piece of ‘pseudo’social commentary geared merely for consumption anddistraction, or else for conspicuous social affirmation.These were just some of the considerations besettingmy mind during those early stages, whilst I descendedfurther into the shadowy valley of my first fullexperience of autumn and winter in Japan. I was still ina state of non-arrival, languishing out in the wildernessof misapprehension, misconception and misadventureover all that is spiritual and material within today’sJapan and Tokyo.This Soulless MetropolisUltimately here in Tokyo, we live in a metropolis overpopulatedwith people and material possessions, materialconduits and material distractions, but depopulated ofsouls.Or rather the souls of people everywhere are simplynowhere to be seen nor felt.Try scanning around on a subway train or whilstwalking a busy thoroughfare. The soul is just somethingyou never really see in public here in Tokyo, much,much more than in other major cities. It is perhaps acommonplace reality, given the discrepancy betweenthe tatemae, or public face, and the honne, or innerfeelings, in the daily life of the Japanese.This is not to say that everyone in Tokyo is in factwithout a soul.But simply, their souls are nowhere to be seen. Perhapstucked away carefully from common view, perhapstucked away so well that even they have forgotten whereto find them.I, for one, certainly forgot where I left or tucked awaymy soul at some point during my fellowship, and havebeen spending something like a year trying to coax itback into the centre of my existence.Every now and then, whilst living in a decent residentialarea, I could see how some foreigners would, for thebriefest moments, get excited upon seeing me—a fellowgaijin, or foreigner, in their non-touristic area—onlyto see them quickly switching back their expressionto something emotionless and blank as everyone elsearound them.Even foreigners here—besides tourists and other shorttermvisitors—are apprehensive about being out of stepand inappropriately behaved here in Tokyo. Myselfincluded.As a result, everyone lives within himself or herself—alone—emotionally and psychologically. Amongstpeople they may be, but they are always alone.The father is typically alone in his own role-playingobligations and career insecurities. The mother istypically alone in her never-ceasing obligations andresponsibilities, if not to her children, then to herneighbors and her social circle. The children maybe fortunate enough to have a sibling to share theirchildhood with—but ultimately each and every one ofthem must carve out his/her own niche in the worldeventually. They are taught very early in life not to bea burden on others nor to depend on others, and they,too, rapidly become alone.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows
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Asian Transformations in ActionThe
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iiiCONTENTSAbout the BookAcknowledg
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V. APPENDICESCultivation of Transfo
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The Regional Project, entitled “C
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ixTHE CONTRIBUTORS(in alphabetical
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MYFEL JOSEPH PALUGA is a faculty me
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xiiiare common to nations around th
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xvsilence maintained by academe on
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xviiIt is reasonable and necessary,
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xixOVERVIEWCzarina Saloma-Akpedonu,
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xxito retain their identity but at
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xxiiiABOUT THE WORKSHOPThe 6 th API
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2CIRCLES OF POWER AND COUNTERBALANC
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26 PERSISTENT PROBLEMS, PROMISING S
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112 REFIGURATION OF IDENTITIES AND
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230 COLLAGES OF BETTERMENTFourth, t
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233Day 3, Tuesday, 27 November 2007
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JOSIE M. FERNANDEZExecutive Council
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237MARY RACELISProfessorial Lecture
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239NAPAT TANGAPIWUTInstitute of Asi
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Persistent problems, promising solu
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Blurred borders and social integrat
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the basis of local identity and exa
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a certain Western perspective while
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strategy found their way into a bus
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