Psychological Practices and Religiosity (Shukyosei) of People in Communities Affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

Shukyosei

This article highlights how the Great East Japan Earthquake shook the foundations of Japanese people’s views on life and death, leading to more attention to the role of religiosity or shukyosei and mental health care practices.  

Relief activities and spiritual care 

One of the notable features of the relief activities after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 was the cooperation of people from different religious communities, such as Christians and Buddhists, to deliver relief activities and spiritual care. This article highlights how this led to increased engagement with and interest in religion for responding to crises in Japan.  

Suggestions for mental health professionals 

This article makes several suggestions for mental health professionals based on its findings. The authors suggest mental health professionals assess the complex constructs of religious and spiritual dimensions of their practice, work to understand a client’s cultural modes of meaning making, study the context in which the client lives and examine the contextual meaning of the beliefs, feelings and behaviours of the client.  

Comment:

This article provides a welcome exploration of the role of faith, outside of the Abrahamic faiths of Christianity, Islam and Judaism, for MHPSS following disasters. It therefore makes a vital contribution to our understanding of this field. The case of Japan, which has low levels of religious affiliation but strong levels of affiliation with traditional customs and rituals of folk religion related to death, challenges how we conceive of faith in different contexts and its intersections with culture more broadly.

How to cite

Saito, C., Ohmura, T., Higuchi, H., & Sato, S. (2016). Psychological Practices and Religiosity (Shukyosei) of People in Communities Affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Pastoral Psychology, 65(2), 239–253. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-015-0685-x
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