Engaged Buddhism in Japan Vol. 2

    These volumes are the culmination of sixteen years of research and engagement in the growing Socially Engaged Buddhist movement in Japan by the International Buddhist Exchange Center (IBEC) @ Kodosan in Yokohama, Japan. They follow its two publications dedicated to the Northeast
Japan tsunami and nuclear disaster in This Precious Life: Buddhist Tsumani Relief and Anti-Nuclear Activism in Post 3/11 Japan (2012) & Lotus in the Nuclear Sea: Fukushima and the Promise of Buddhism in the Nuclear Age (2013).

    Volume II presents the new Socially Engaged Buddhist activities of 21st century Japan, a dynamic movement arising out of the social crisis of Japan's "disconnected society" mu-en shakai. It focuses on five sub-movements in end-of-life care, suicide prevention, disaster relief and Buddhist chaplaincy, poverty and homelessness, and anti-nuclear activism and holistic development. An Afterword ponders the possibility of a new movement for gender justice. Volume I provides an essential presentation of historical themes and a comprehensive survey of Socially Engaged Buddhism in the modern era.

Introduction: The Rise of Japan’s Disconnected Society (mu-en shakai)
1 Recollecting Death: Reforming Funeral Buddhism through Compassionate End-of-Life Care
2 Rewriting Culture: The Suicide Prevention Priests of Japan
3 Entering the Zone of Suffering: Disaster Relief, Grief Care, and Buddhist Chaplaincy
4 Rebuilding Karmic Bonds: A Buddhist Path through Rural Decline, Migrant Laborers, Poverty, and Homelessness
5 Aspiring for Enlightened Development: The Disaster of Nuclear Energy and the Potential for “Buddhist Development” (kai-hotsu)
Afterword: The Next Stage of Socially Engaged Buddhism in Japan?