Ugo Dessì* Japanese Religions, Inclusivism, and the Global Context The analysis of various discourses emerging from contemporary Japanese religions shows that the endorsement of religious pluralism (“all religions have equal dignity”) may not go beyond a formal stage, and that the underlying pattern in interreligious communication is rather that of religious inclusivism (“other religions are approximations to the truth and therefore inferior”). his attitude toward the religious ‘other’ may be found in Shintō, Japanese Buddhism, and in new religious movements, and is meaningfully related in many cases to the nihonjin-ron and nihonkyō-ron discourses and the critique of monotheism. his article also illustrates how the option for religious inclusivism in Japan may be related to the dynamics of globalization in various ways. On the one hand, it counts as a repositioning of ‘native’ religious traditions within a global society characterized by the progressive relativization of religious values, and shows an awareness of the world as a ‘single place.’ On the other hand, it may be closely related to the push toward glocalization and the role of religion as a resource for the solution of global problems. Keywords: Shintō – Japanese Buddhism – new religious movements – inclusivism – pluralism – globalization Introduction Common knowledge about religion in Japan tends to emphasize the ideas of harmony and tolerance, which are also largely current in self-representations across the Japanese religious world. While it may be seen that this image of Japanese religions is often based on an ahistorical and factitious view of ‘Japanese spirituality,’ it should also be conceded that there has been in postwar Japan a growing interest in forms of interreligious dialogue. One may think here of organizations such as the Nihon Shūkyō Renmei 日本宗教連盟 ( Japanese Association of Religious Organizations); to the activism of the new religious movement Risshō Kōsei-kai’s 立正佼成会 leader Niwano Nikkyō 庭野日敬 (1906-1999) and his contribution to the creation of the Shin-nihon Shūkyō-dantai Rengō-kai 新日本宗教団体連合会 * Lecturer, University of Leipzig Japanese Religions, Vol. 36 (1 & 2) : 83-99