Japanese Temples During COVID-19

by Kaiden Tran, Features Editor

2006 HASEGAWA Hiroaki

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world, many industries and organizations have been negatively affected in terms of their production and funds due to lockdown procedures. One aspect of society that has been affected by quarantine is religion, more specifically Buddhism. Luckily, a series of Japanese Buddhist temples were able to adapt to the changing world and switch their services online hosting virtual memorial services and prayers.

One effect that lockdown had on temples was the decrease in donations and followers they relied on to keep the church going. The usual donations that temples received helped them stay in operation. However, since no one physically left anywhere except for essential activities, temples did not receive as much money as they needed to keep themselves in operation.

“When we lost visitors and donations fell, we realized that our conventional way of supporting our operations no longer works,” Deputy Chief priest at the temple Ryosukuin Toryo Ito said.

Tsukiji Hongwanji, an ancient place or worship from four centuries in Japan’s history, was one of the leading examples of a temple responding to the issues presented by COVID-19.

To not spread the virus further, Tsukiji Hongwanji began hosting online memorial services for families of the deceased since May 2020. Ryosukuin also led temples in adapting to COVID-19 procedures by first designing a meditation app which has over 15,000 downloads.

“Just like Amazon.com responds to the various needs of customers online, a temple can do the same,” Representative Director and Priest at Tsukiji Hongwanji Yugen Yasunaga said.

These temples are trying their hardest to operate for its followers, as they were forced to quickly adapt to lockdown procedures. The management of these temples had to expand into buying stocks to cover the required funds they need to keep themselves running.

“At a time when we can barely get any returns from long-term savings, we’re happy that we can contribute to helping society while earning enough returns to cover inflation,” Chief Priest Yuzan Yamamoto said.

Fortunately these Japanese Buddhist temples were able to adapt to lockdown procedures and keep running for its followers.

Religion as a whole has greatly lessened in the new generation of youth meaning it is very difficult to acquire the funding they need regardless of quarantining. Experts believe that the temple’s income has gone down by half since 2015. Despite this, the Japanese temples were smart and speedy in transitioning to fit the virus in order to aid its loyal followers.