The traditional Japanese religions as well as the new ones found their own path in the multicultural, pluri-ethnic and remarkably tolerant Brazilian society. Since the Japanese immigration from 1908 onwards, those religions underwent some additional changes derived from Eastern religious aspirations from the countercultural movement and missionary activities achieved by the religious Japanese authorities in Brazil.
Despite of its enduring and in terms of local institutions and members numerically remarkable presence in Brazil, Japanese religions have only sporadically called the attention both of Brazilian scholars of religion and of researchers from other countries. This deficit has to be overcome especially when considered from the viewpoint of Comparative Religion, that is, seen from the angle of a discipline dedicated to the systematic study of any kind of religion present in a given society. This is even more true when one considers the discipline in Brazil whose research activities are predominantly focused on religious phenomena considered or historically “dominant” (especially Catholicism) or distinctively Brazilian (such as Afro-Brazilian Religions and Spiritism).
The congress “Japanese spiritual heritage in Brazil – modalities of religious transplantation and cultural adaptation since 1908” is meant as a response to the deficit of systematic research of Japanese Religions in Brazil and to the lack of regular intellectual interchange between national and foreign scholars interested in the topic and engaged in its investigation.
The historic moment of the 100th Anniversary of the Japanese Immigration to Brazil as well as the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the creation of PUC/SP Religious Studies Program endorse this international conference: Japanese spiritual heritage in Brazil – modalities of religious transplantation and cultural adaptation since 2008 as a contribution to the academic dimension of the cultural responses that have occurred in the last years.