Could you tell me how many sects and sub sects of japanese buddhism exist right now?

by Mark

(Libon, Portugal)

The Question:

Hi, I’m making a study for the university here in Portugal, I have this info from 1990’s saying that in Japan are 56 sects and subsects registered, 71300 temples, 9 universities, 6 special colleges, and so on. But as this is very old I wanted to know if you have more up to date information regarding this.

I’m really grateful for your help. I wish you well.

My answer:

I did some research and found this website in Japanese: http://www.jbf.ne.jp/a00/index.html

They quote some stats from 2004 as compiled by the Japanese Agency for Cultural affairs.

They claim that the number of Buddhists in Japan is 93,485,017 people. Just for further information, the number of Shintoists is numbered at 100,858,457 people.
There are also 2,161,707 Christians.

As for the number of temples in Japan, it is hard to count precisely but the commonly agreed number is 75,000, or one and a half times the number of convenience stores in the country.
Temples open and close every year in Japan so it is hard to keep an exact count.

You also ask about the number of sects and sub-sects. The total number of sects registered at the government was 168 as of December 31, 2004. (102 belong to the Japan Buddhist Association)
These 102 sects serve 90% of the Japanese Buddhist population.

There are also 137 Shinto sects of different denominations.

I could not find information on the number of Buddhist universities but I doubt strongly that there are only 9. I can tell you of 4 or 5 just from the top of my head and I am far from knowing all of Japan. Many sects also have private high schools (Jinai in Fukui City for example) and even more temples have private kindergartens.

I hope this helps your research.

In compassion.

Hugo