Although you see countless Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in almost any direction that you look in Japan, the experience of living here quickly dispels the initial belief that Japanese people must be deeply religious. Apart from the various festivals and events that originate at these shrines and temples, and the celebration of the New Year, visits to the local shrine to seek spiritual guidance for one's life are quite rare. And visits to major shrines and temples such as Meiji Jingu in Tokyo, Ise shrine in Mie, Izumo Taisha in Shimane, Kiyomizu temple and Heian shrine in Kyoto, and Kasuga shrine and Todaiji temple are often tourist oriented, rather than for a significant religious reason. I think it is fair to say that the day to day philosophies that contemporary Japanese live their lives by are not derived from any inherent deep religious belief. In fact, Japanese people today may well be justifiably suspicious of organised religions in general, given the effect the attempt to create a State Shintoism had during the Meiji period. It led to a fairly rabid Nationalism, which in turn took them into several armed conflicts, ultimately resulting in their entry into World War 2 (organised religions and war have a historical habit of going hand in hand).
Oura Catholic church in Nagasaki. Built in 1864, at the very end of the Tokugawa period. It was exclusively for foreigners to worship in, and is now a major tourist attraction for Japanese and foreign visitors to Nagasaki.
This may be part of the reason as to why Christianity has not become popular in Japan, although many attempts have been made to establish and expand it. Like shrines and temples, you do see significant Christian churches in Japan, but they are more visited as tourist destinations, rather than places of Christian worship. Of course there are worshipping Christians in Japan, who use these facilities as a major part of their lives. But Christians make up less than one percent of the population, and there has been no significant increase to that in recent times, even though freedom of religion is constitutionally guaranteed.
