The Rise of the New Spirituality

This chapter identifies the evolving characteristics of the ‘new spirituality culture’ (shin reisei bunka 新霊性文化) in Japan, a culture that is differentiated from traditional religion and traditional notions of ‘spirituality’ by its embrace of seemingly secular concerns like healthcare and healing, business ethics and self-help. This discussion will introduce seminal individuals from the 1970s and 80s who shifted the understanding of spirituality towards a definition that encompasses new understandings of consciousness and body and thus helped broaden the conception of spirituality that emerged in the 1990s. These profiles are followed by a discussion of the spread and application of spirituality through health care and
the hospice movement.