TOKYO —
It is said that a Japanese person is born Shinto, marries Christian and dies Buddhist, but really it’s an oversimplification.
As a social experiment, find a personals site where Japanese can select their religion from a list. You’ll see that a great deal select “agnostic.”
On top of this – Confucianism, a form of Chinese ethical humanism more so than a religion—serves as the basis for the rules of the road.
Buddhism and Confucianism don’t really weigh in on the question of God. In fact, Japan is believed to have one of the highest numbers of atheists in the world, according to one study, at least 65%, in comparison to 3-6% in the U.S.