Japonya'da Yeni Dini Hareketler

Although new religious movements have been defined in post-war periods, where global changes took place due to the place, time and relativeness depending on where they emerged, developed and spread, this approach does not have a general-valid nature. In particular, the identification of studies according to the situation of the researchers in the society makes it difficult for new religious movements to be understood with a common approach that can give correct results. This problematic is clearly seen in Far Eastern societies, especially in Japan. The most important indicator of this is that the existence of religious movements had a history until the early 19th century. This shows that the existence of the religious movement depends mostly on regional factors by differentiating the effect of the movement on the formation of the time and the conditions of the period. On the other hand, it is also noteworthy that the internal dynamics of religious movements in Japan are different from religious movements in Europe and America in terms of including syncretic soteriology. As it is known, the most striking reason for the existence of religious movements in general is
that the established religion or religious understanding cannot provide solutions to the spiritual needs of the society. In this sense, the fact that religious movements in Japan, where religious pluralism is effective, contains the idea of salvation in a syncretic way, and it is of a great importance in terms of understanding the new religious movements both in terms of sociology of religion and history of religions. In the paper, first of all, considering these features, the general characteristics of new religious movements in Japan and the reasons for the emergence of psychological and socio-economic factors are discussed. Secondly, its development, institutionalization, historical periods and features of these historical periods are discussed. Thirdly, individuals and society-based perspectives are discussed with examples of which religions and movements are mainly affected in terms of their syncretic features, and this important deficiency in the field has been highlighted.