I came to understand that, as an ordinary monk, I still have more privilege than many people. It made me reflect on what I could do for people who have been marginalized. Buddhism should be centered around the people, with less emphasis on words and more on actions. Monks are human like everyone else, and instead of waiting for people to come and pay respect to us at the temple, we should go out to those who suffer, including minorities, and support them. — Ven. Itthiyawat, Sangha for Peace, Dharma Heirs Project
Spiritual development helps create an invisible shield. I am grateful to all the teachers, feminists, and activists who have contributed to healing work. Everyone has given me accumulated strength, taught me lessons, and made me strong and confident in my own value. This is what I’ve never received from religious leaders. Trans-Womanhood and religion are usually perceived to be in opposite directions and often accompanied with oppressive narratives. Witnessing Buddhist monks who are open to LGBTQ+ inclusivity brings feelings of liberation and hope. — Nachale, Sangha for Peace, Rainbow Sangha Project
These words were uttered by two persons from Thailand in programs initiated by the International Network of Engaged Buddhists’ (INEB) Sangha for Peace. It is inspiring to see such work being done in Thailand, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka—bastions of conservative, male-monastic-centric Buddhism. The question for this article is what kind of meaning or impact could such work have for Japanese Buddhism, a tradition so diametrically opposite. In Japan, large lay sanghas emerged in the postwar period to rival traditional monastic sanghas whose monks have become married priests with wives who care for their temples as a mother cares for her household. This challenge was adopted by the newly formed Buddhist Social Ethics in Contemporary Japan Study Group (BSEJ),1 founded in late 2022.
Acknowledging how engaged Buddhism and social work is starting to become a mainstream aspect of Japanese Buddhism, the group is concerned that such work may not include critical examinations of structural and cultural violence, while stagnating in a focus on individual suffering and frailty as the cause of suffering. In May 2023, the BSEJ held its first public symposium in Tokyo on the general theme of “Why Should We Consider Buddhist Social Ethics Today?” as a way to introduce the group and its goals to society. As this article unfolds, it will become clearer why the group chose the theme “Social Practice by Buddhists from a Gender Perspective” for its second public symposium, which was hosted on 17 May by the Ryukoku University Graduate School of Practical Shin Buddhist Studies2 affiliated with the Jodo Shin Pure Land Hongan-ji denomination in Kyoto.
“Temple wives” and the particular challenges of gender in Japanese Buddhism
The gender issue in Japanese Buddhism is a classic example of the myopia regarding patriarchy, discrimination toward women as Buddhist teachers and leaders, and discrimination in general by hetero-normative male priests to “the other.” In short, Buddhist monks in Japan were gradually laicized in the 1870s: first with the “meat eating and marriage” (Jp: 肉食妻帯 nikujiki saitai) policy that deregulated state control over, and enforcement of, the Buddhist monastic Vinaya; and then, with policies that classified priests as “common citizens” (国民 kokumin) who had to register as belonging to a household, even as a “temple family” (寺族 ji-zoku). This term ji-zoku is now commonly used to refer to the wife of the abbot. As the modern Buddhist temple came to replicate, and even willfully live up to, the social standards established by the modernized Japanese government, ji-zoku came to take on the same roles as common housewives in their patriotic role of raising sons for the new society.3 Beyond forcing ji-zoku into such hetero-normative social roles, the results of this attitude are numerous and include:
1) With the lack of acknowledged status comes a lack of opportunity to cultivate themselves as practitioners, much less as leaders in the sangha.
2) A lack of decision-making power, especially in the governance of the wider denomination, is seen in the almost total lack of women in denominational parliaments. Only 2 per cent of the members of denominational parliaments (宗議会 shugi-kai) of the 10 major traditional Buddhist sects are women.
3) The threat exists that if they are unsuccessful in raising a male heir, they can be pushed out of the temple when their husband dies with no claim to the home they have built.
4) At the time of death, they may be buried separately in small graves while their husbands are buried in much larger ones alongside previous abbots.
5) Being confined to the duties of raising children and maintaining the temple prevents ji-zoku from becoming active in wider social activities, for example socially engaged Buddhist ones, which their husbands more freely access and gain greater social acclaim for.4
As noted, this second BSEJ symposium in Kyoto was hosted by the Jodo Shin Pure Land Hongan-ji sect. In turn, one of the three panel respondents was a ji-zoku from the Hongan-ji order, who gave a first-person account of the difficulties outlined above by women living in traditional Japanese Buddhist temples. Rev. Bettina Teramoto is from the Gokuraku-ji temple in Osaka. Married to a Jodo Shin Hongan-ji priest, she has also taken ordination in the much more laicized style of the Jodo Shin order. Since its founder Shinran (1173–1263) himself was married, the Jodo Shin orders are the only ones in Japan with a long historical tradition of ji-zoku, which they call by a different name bo-mori 坊守 (lit. “protector of the monk’s quarters”).
As such, there is no Jodo Shin bhikshuni sangha and none of the rigorous monastic training of, for example, the Zen orders, where the distinction between ordained bhikshuni and ji-zoku is strongly pronounced. However, as opposed to ji-zoku, bo-mori have a more respected position in the temple based on a secure legal status. Still, this de-emphasis on male-centric monasticism has not prevented these Pure Land orders from being significantly less patriarchal. In fact, the Jodo Shin Hongan-ji order at present has no women in its denominational parliament (shugi-kai) at all. Rev. Teramoto detailed a number of other barriers to the equal treatment of women in the denomination, such as the necessity of a separate salary for their work in the temple and the right to various freedoms, such as childcare, which would enable greater participation in the administration of the Hongan-ji denomination and in society in general.
Kawahashi Noriko 川橋範子, a leading scholar and activist on gender issues in Japanese Buddhism today, as well as a Soto Zen ji-zoku, has explained one of the root causes of the lack of change in these traditional Buddhist denominations. Since the beginning of the modern era in Japan in the late 1900s, traditional Buddhist denominations have internalized the ethic of the “separation of religion and state” (政教分離 sei-kyo bunri) promoted and enforced on them by the Japanese government. The problem has become not only a reluctance to take stances on social issues, but also the ways that they address gender issues in order to avoid trends toward women’s empowerment in wider society.
Kawahashi comments: “These are all maneuvers to turn religious faith into a private matter and thus remove it from topics that are susceptible to debate in the public sphere. To these conservatives, even if a problem of the kind identified by the women’s movement did exist, it could be reduced to a merely personal and individual issue that has nothing to do with social justice. Therefore, religious faith can be used as a rationale for suppressing attempts to denounce discriminatory practices.”5 From the perspective of the socially engaged Buddhist interpretation of the Four Noble Truths, this is a classic example of obscuring structural and cultural violence through appeals to the failed agency of individuals. It is also a problem of the persistent power of modern Japanese institutions to turn general, patterned issues of social injustice into case-by-case incidents that do not require paradigm shift.6
Unfortunately, the ji-zoku issue is so unique to Japan that it also seems to hinder the building of deeper forms of solidarity with Buddhist feminists in other parts of the world. A few Japanese women have been active in Sakyadhita International, the most prominent international Buddhist women’s solidarity organization. However, it has been hard to engage in common goals and forms of activism. For example, over the past three decades, many international Buddhist women’s groups have devoted themselves to the education and development of young monastic women, who represent a tiny and decreasing number of Buddhist women in Japan. On the other hand, the robust Korean and Taiwanese bhikshuni orders have been able to create solidarity with women in the Global South out of their common concern for ordination. As the large majority of Buddhist women in Japan are not bhikshunis and are caught in the particular problem of ji-zoku, such connections have not developed.
Intersectionality in the Sangha for Peace
This is the point at which we return to the work of the Sangha for Peace, largely confined to the distant social context of the Theravada South and Southeast Asia. The Sangha for Peace has a quite broad and “inclusive” understanding of “peace”: “In peace-building communities, we prioritize more than just the cessation of conflict or the absence of violence. Our work focuses on the journey of peace-building, striving to promote wellness and justice for all in every situation.”
In this way, they seek to build “inclusive” and “positive” peace. The former means “including all relevant stakeholders in the peace process, especially those often excluded from decision-making processes. It recognizes the importance of healing the wounds and defusing the underlying tensions that have pulled apart society and ensuring that all groups have the opportunity to be heard and have their concerns addressed.” The latter means “the absence of structural and cultural violence, which allows people to live in dignity, freedom, and with equal opportunities. Positive peace is the attitudes, institutions, and structures that create and sustain peaceful societies. It denotes the simultaneous presence of many desirable states of mind and society, such as harmony, justice, and equity.”
The Sangha for Peace has been active in Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar since 2022, building a wide variety of localized action plans around women’s empowerment, monastic transformation, interfaith building, youth leadership, well-being and counseling, and, of course, peace and reconciliation.
Anchalee Kurutach, who coordinates the Sangha for Peace on behalf of INEB, was invited to visit Japan by the Buddhist Social Ethics in Contemporary Japan Study Group (BSEJ) in May 2024 to bring her perspectives on “gender equality and social inclusion” in action. This phrase “gender equality and social inclusion” seems clear enough at face value, but from Kurutach and the Sangha we can learn a new perspective. They define “gender equality and social inclusion” (GE-SI) as:
GE: the absence of any discrimination based on gender, equal access to socially, economically, and politically valued resources, opportunities, benefits, and services for all.
SI: improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of disadvantaged individuals and groups to take part in society.
GESI: also important for addressing the complex relationships between various social differences, such as gender, age, caste, ethnicity, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, physical ability, and other categories of social difference. This is known as intersectionality, and it recognizes that factors such as gender, race, and socio-economic status often have complex relationships with one another, with interdependent advantages and disadvantages.
Sangha for Peace in solidarity for GESI
“Intersectionality,” thus, has as a rather negative sense, indicating the compounded nature of duhkha (suffering, dis-ease) in which certain persons may suffer from multiple forms of discrimination. From a Buddhist perspective, we may also understand this term in service of upaya (expedient means) to liberate, in this specific case, the ji-zoku and gender problem within Japanese Buddhism, which is seen in a circumscribed context as an internal matter of temples. “Intersectionality” can enable us to connect it to a host of social issues that can provide portals for discovering allies and empowering others previously not interested in this problem—as just a women’s problem—to get involved.
Indeed, Kurutach told of a specifically inspiring moment in their work with a Theravada monk from Sri Lanka who had never even heard of the term “LGBTQ+.” Inspired and activated by a real human connection with such persons in the Sangha for Peace, he has since returned home and used his own funds to work on GESI and specifically LGBTQ+ issues in his community. It is, thus, the goal of BSEJ to use “intersectionality” to build bridges and raise a more critical awareness of actions that can be done to address the range of duhkha around GESI.
Gender issues in a socially engaged lay Buddhist denomination
As the BSEJ sees itself as activist as much as scholarly, Kurutach’s week in Japan consisted of more than just speaking at the symposium at Ryukoku University. She first visited the office of the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) Japan, hosted by the major lay Buddhist denomination Rissho Kosei-kai. WCRP Japan’s director of general affairs is Miyoshi Yasuko, who also serves as the coordinator of the BSEJ group and acted as the first panelist at the Ryukoku symposium. At the symposium, Miyoshi-san spoke about the different character of Rissho Kosei-kai as a lay denomination without traditional priests and their modern wives (ji-zoku). Founded in 1938, Rissho Kosei-kai is one of the largest Buddhist denominations in Japan, with 900,000 member households, 238 centers, and 59 more centers in 19 countries and regions overseas. Based on the teachings of the Lotus Sutra, they seek to “perfect one’s character through the philosophy of the Single Vehicle of the Buddha (一仏乗 ichi-butsu-jo) by making offerings to ancestors, striving to perfect one’s mind, and performing unselfish deeds for others as part of the way of the bodhisattva.”
In terms of gender dynamics, as with many of the new lay sanghas in Japan, most of its active members are women, drawn from the dramatic increase of urban households in the postwar period. During the population shift to cities, women joined a wide variety of new religions, which developed communities to replace rural, village kinship groups.7 As earlier noted, this era of the laicization of traditional Buddhist monks also marks the emergence of the hetero-normative nuclear family, in which men went out into society as “salarymen” and women remained domestic as “full-time housewives”. Despite this status, women in such lay Buddhist groups as Rissho Kosei-kai became leaders at the grassroots level, helping to grow membership. They were empowered to study the Dharma, lead community study and counseling groups called hoza (lit. “Dharma seat” 法座), and participate in society beyond the confines of the home.
As detailed by Rev. Teramoto in her talk, such opportunities are also possible for ji-zoku in their local communities. However, the new lay denominations offered significantly more leadership roles without monastic husbands casting a shadow over them. This empowerment is reflected in the significantly higher number of certified Dharma teachers in the new lay sanghas. In the traditional denominations, female ordained teachers range from 2.5–2.9 per cent in Zen denominations to 17.1–19.5 per cent in Jodo Shin Pure Land denominations. On the other hand, in the new Lotus Sutra-based lay groups, such teachers amount to well over 50 per cent, with Rissho Kosei-kai having the highest percentage of 77.1 per cent (17,432 male teachers and 58,794 female).8
Miyoshi-san noted, however, that there is still a strong presence of patriarchy mirroring general Japanese society. Almost all the upper management as well as figureheads in Rissho Kosei-kai and in the other lay Buddhist groups are men, while the lower management are women. Earlier, we noted the tiny percentage of 2 per cent of women in the denominational parliaments (宗議会 shugi-kai) of the traditional monastic orders. In Rissho Kosei-kai, on the highest the executive and managerial 幹部・管理職 levels, only eight (12.3 per cent) out of 65 positions are occupied by women.
Miyoshi-san, however, did express some optimism for change noting: “As the percentage of full-time housewives in society decreases and the number of dual-earner households increases, operations at Rissho Kosei-kai centers, which have been supported by full-time housewives, are at a crossroads. In this way, gender-based guidance and roles for men and women are being reconsidered”. The primary example of this is the introduction of their Same-Sex Partnership System on 1 April 2022, which says: “This regulation is designed to enable service members to thrive and work well into the future. It recognizes sexual minorities and provides for the voluntary recognition by Rissho Kosei-kai of same-sex partnerships and marriage.”
Miyoshi-san explained that this policy has opened the door for collecting opinions from Rissho Kosei-kai staff about family and gender diversity covering 135 different items, such as: 1) accommodations (shared rooms), bathing facilities, restroom signage, etc; 2) gender distinctions in precepts for the deceased and the naming of children; 3) gender fields for admissions, joining clubs, education, hiring staff, etc; and 4) references to gender roles in teachings and texts, gender-specific clothing in ceremonies and rituals, etc. Miyoshi-san concluded: “While such moves have been made in the past year or two, tackling such issues as the Buddhist precepts, reviewing the existence of gendered groupings like the men’s association and women’s association, and reviewing the Dharma talks of the founder from a gender perspective are major issues that remain untouched.”
For some years now, Rissho Kosei-kai’s social activities have been considered an important example of socially engaged Buddhism in Japan. Besides WCRP (now known as Religions for Peace), founded in 1970 and headquartered at the United Nations in New York, the Niwano Peace Foundation has brought a wide variety of socially engaged Buddhist figures in Asia to the attention of the Japanese public through its annual peace prize. The 2021 winner was Ven. Chao Hwei 昭慧, a Taiwanese bhikshuni and an important patron of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), who has also been campaigning for same-sex marriage rights in Taiwan for more than a decade.
On the second day of Kurutach’s visit, she was able to attend this year’s Niwano Peace Prize ceremony, awarded to Palestinian-American Prof. Mohammed Abu-Nimer. More importantly, Kurutach’s visit to the WCRP Japan the day before resulted in an invitation to return to Japan to work with their Cultivation of Peace and Reconciliation Facilitators. This program “offers seminars to foster human resources who can overcome conflicts and bring about reconciliation, both at the immediate and international levels, due to insecurity, prejudice, selfishness, conflict, and division.”
In the seminars, participants learn from experts in the academic, NGO, and religious fields the skills to resolve various conflicts not by exclusion or violence (including verbal and psychological violence), but by listening and dialogue. As such, they seek to transform conflicts, while being close to their own minds and the minds of others. The goal of these seminars is to practice ways of guiding people toward reconciliation that emphasize the dignity of life and spirituality. During Kurutach’s presentation of the Sangha for Peace, the staff and leaders of WCRP knew they had found a colleague who can extend their work through a more expansive understanding of peace.
Intersectionality in a traditional Buddhist-based NGO
Kurutach’s week in Tokyo before the Kyoto symposium was filled out with a visit to AYUS, an international cooperation NGO founded in 1993 by mostly Jodo and Jodo Shin Pure Land Buddhists of the traditional Buddhist world. AYUS is one of the important Japanese Buddhist NGOs built on the experiences of priests from various traditional denominations during the Indochina refugee crisis of the 1980s.9 AYUS works mainly on issues related to peace and human rights, such as poverty, injustice, environmental destruction, humanitarian assistance in conflict zones, and peace-building.
They have two important policies that guide their work: 1) to cooperate with especially non-religious NGOs that pursue holistic development. As such, AYUS does not directly manage projects but cooperates with NGOs that are working on the ground to provide small-scale financial assistance; 2) to provide information aimed at social change. AYUS encourages citizens to learn about social issues themselves and change their values and behavior in order to help solve problems. They attempt to serve as a hub to connect NGOs, Buddhists, and citizens to collaborate and share their wisdom and resources. At the AYUS office in central Tokyo, Kurutach met AYUS’ longtime director, Edaki Mika, as well as AYUS board member Seno Misa, the daughter of a Soto Zen priest, who has worked for many years in the administrative offices of the Soto sect. Both are active members of the Tokai-Kanto Network of Women and Buddhism.10
This network is largely constituted of women from the traditional Buddhist denominations who are ji-zoku. It also includes fully ordained nuns (bhikshuni) and researchers in the fields of religion, gender, and women’s history, such as the aforementioned Kawahashi Noriko. Participants discuss various aspects of gender issues that they experience or have found in their research and publish it in their annual group magazine Women Who Have Thus Heard 女たちの如是我聞. This magazine contains first-person accounts of the experiences of women, as well as articles carefully written from literary analysis.
Edaki-san is also an advisor and participant in the BSEJ and acted along with Miyoshi-san as a panelist at the Kyoto symposium. She occupies a very important place of “intersectionality” in Japanese Buddhism by working to connect the traditional Buddhist world with wider civil society. Since the end of World War II, traditional Buddhists and their temples became increasingly marginalized in secular Japanese society, which often bars their participation in public activities through the aforementioned policy of “the separation of church and state.” Not only does this deprive society of important spiritual viewpoints and values, it has also retarded the growth of Buddhist denominations and institutions. In terms of gender, the Buddhist world has more outdated views and standards than mainstream society.
At the symposium in Kyoto, Edaki-san spoke directly to this point: “I did not have a strong awareness of gender issues from the beginning of my participation in AYUS. In fact, I even thought it would be easier to find a place in a male-dominated society. In that way, I had internalized gender norms and discrimination into my work life. Most of the collaborators and funders of AYUS are male Buddhist priests. When we want a temple to become a collaborator of AYUS, we inevitably have to become part of a male-dominated society, where gender roles tend to be naturally divided between men and women. As such, I have often been expected to play the role of a woman at various events, such as fetching tea and pouring sake during group parties and after work meals. But I questioned myself about this: ‘Is this good enough for an organization that claims to work for peace and human rights?’ Furthermore, ‘Can people in socially vulnerable positions achieve self-fulfillment if they have to exist in such conventional roles?’”
While Rev. Teramoto did not directly answer this question in her talk, she did speak about a variety of community activities that have brought herself and other ji-zoku fulfillment. The Jodo Shin Hongan-ji order has a particularly robust association of temple wives called the General Federation of Buddhist Women’s Associations.11 This national network, which includes overseas Hongan-ji temples, has provided a platform to raise funds for orphanages, support international volunteers, serve in disaster areas, and provide for children in need. It also shows the wide variety of important linkages between Buddhist temples and local communities through the efforts of ji-zoku. Rev. Teramoto explained: “These women’s associations could be seen as an unnecessary gender division, but in the Asian context, it is very positive that women can organize themselves, collect funds and have a budget from members fees, and develop networks.”
As a trained architect, Rev. Teramoto has been asked to serve on a denominational board of advisors filled mostly with men to offer her insights on making temples more accessible to the public. In a separate initiative, she has been using her understanding of modern and alternative architecture to make temples more inclusive as spaces for art, culture, and food. Here again is an example of intersectionality in support of the gender issue. If women are offered the same opportunities as men in educational development, they can provide creative new forms of engagement that link with society and also help these denominations update their values and standards to the contemporary world.
In terms of developing more social engagement, however, Edaki-san also discussed the disjuncture between socially engaged Buddhism and the gender issue in Japan. She explained that interest in socially engaged Buddhism has been growing, and she has held meetings with other Buddhists who are interested in it to discuss what priests and temples can do in various fields, such as peace, environment, children’s education, and international cooperation. However, she noted, “for some reason, when it comes to gender issues, the Buddhist community is not so clear. Instead of focusing on society in general, the conversation turns to the rights of the temple family, the status of nuns, and other issues that concern our own people.” This point echoes the one made earlier by Kawahashi on the individualization or fencing in of the gender issue in Japanese Buddhism as an internal matter.
Edaki-san introduced teaching materials that AYUS has developed together with the Development Education Association and Resource Center (DEAR) called “Tips for Reviewing Education from a Gender Perspective.” This is a book for educators and organizational leaders that introduces workshop activities to recognize their own gender bias. It guides them to review school culture, learning environments, curricula, and teaching materials, as well as to develop a language of questioning from a gender perspective. The first step is for those at the top to become aware of their own biases and the gender perspectives that are lacking in their current work environment and educational content. Edaki-san feels this will be a first step toward improvement, and she plans to conduct this workshop at Buddhist gatherings as well.
Edaki-san has actually been a frequent participant in INEB conferences over the last 20 years. In 2008, she met Ouyporn Khuankaew, a longtime INEB board member and mentor to many in the network through her International Women’s Partnership for Peace and Justice (IWP) based in Thailand. Edaki-san described her participation in one of Khuankaew’s gender workshops as “eye-opening”. Specifically, Edaki-san began to see the intersectionality between gender discrimination and the latent racism in international aid work directed from the Global North to South. Edaki spoke about the vertical axis of relationships between those who dominate and those who are dominated; those who have the power to make decisions and those who do not. She explained: “This exists not only between men and women, but also in my work of international cooperation. I have come to think that the relationship between the country providing aid and the country being aided is one of controlling the other party—unless we are very conscious of it and move toward respect for independence and autonomy.”
Conclusion: using Buddhism to build North-South solidarity
Edaki-san’s awareness is critical for the Japanese Buddhist world and what it considers social engagement or socially engaged Buddhism. Since 2015, many Japanese Buddhist denominations and groups have jumped on the bandwagon of the United Nation’s promotion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), mostly through educational activities. However, others, including engaged Buddhists in the South, see the SDGs as yet another example of the neocolonial agendas of the North, for example, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) established in 1965 to “end poverty, build democratic governance, rule of law, and inclusive institutions” that reintroduced the English model of liberal capitalism under the banner of development and poverty reduction.12
The uncritical embrace of the SDGs by not only Japanese Buddhists but also Japanese society in general illustrates the long held position of Sulak Sivaraksa, the outspoken Thai engaged Buddhist and co-founder of INEB. He has said that Japan is not in Asia, since it is always looking to the West for inspiration and not to the South (and the rest of Asia) for solidarity. Kurutach’s visit to Japan to meet with Japanese socially engaged Buddhists and feminists has been an attempt to shift this gaze and build solidarity among Buddhists in Asia toward more holistic solutions than the activities of Buddhists NGOs or slickly-crafted SDG promotional campaigns. During her visit to the AYUS office as well as after the Kyoto symposium, discussions were held about developing gender workshops for Japanese women around the model developed by Khuankaew in Thailand, which has been used in a variety of contexts for women around Asia. Stay tuned for more!
1 現代日本における仏教的社会倫理の課題研究会
2 龍谷大学実践真宗学研究科
3 Watts, Jonathan S. 2023. Engaged Buddhism in Japan, Volume I: An Engaged Buddhist History of Japan from the Ancient to the Modern. Ontario: Sumeru Press. Pp. 132–34.
4 Watts, Jonathan S. 2023. Engaged Buddhism in Japan, Volume II: A New Socially Engaged Buddhism in 21st Century Japan. From Intimate Care to Social Ethics. Ontario: Sumeru Press. P. 317.
5 Kawahashi, Noriko 川橋範子. 2012. “Re-Imagining Buddhist Women in Contemporary Japan,” in Handbook for Contemporary Japanese Religions. Eds. Inken Prohl & John K. Nelson. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill.
6 Watts. Engaged Buddhism in Japan, Volume II. P. 317.
7 Shimazono, Susumu 島薗進. 2020. Inquiring into New Religions (新宗教を問う Shinshukyo-wo to-u). Tokyo: Chikuma Shobo Books.
8 Watts. Engaged Buddhism in Japan, Volume II. Pp. 333–34.
9 Watts. Engaged Buddhism in Japan, Volume I. Pp. 267–72.
10 女性と仏教東海·関東ネットワーク
11 仏教婦人会総連盟
12 Watts. Engaged Buddhism in Japan, Volume II. Pp. 311–14.
See more
Japan Network of Engaged Buddhists (JNEB)
International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB)
Sangha for Peace
World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) Japan
Development Education Association and Resource Center (DEAR)
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