Youth Culture and Religion in Twenty-First Century Japan

In Japan's Virtuality Era, youth blend fiction and faith; crafting new rituals, identities, and spiritual worlds across digital frontiers.

This Element explores emerging forms of religiosity among Japanese young adults. It argues that existing frameworks are insufficient to capture the nuances of youth religiosity in the Era of Virtuality. It conceptualizes how young people engage with digital, fictional, and embodied practices that blur the boundaries between reality and imagination.This Element explores emerging forms of religiosity among Japanese young adults. It argues that existing frameworks are insufficient to capture the nuances of youth religiosity in the Era of Virtuality. It introduces the concepts of “2.5-dimensional religion” and “subjective ritualization” to explain how young people engage with digital, fictional, and embodied practices that blur the boundaries between reality and imagination. Drawing from examples such as oshi-katsu (fandom-based devotional practices), 2.5-D musicals, tulpa creation, and anime pilgrimage, it identifies a shift from narrative-based subjective myths to embodied and participatory subjective rituals. It demonstrates the ways that contemporary Japanese youth express their religiosity through affective ties, performative engagements, and layered identities in both physical and digital environments. The Element contributes a new theoretical lens for understanding religion across cultures in an age defined by fragmented identities, technological mediation, and the search for connection through affectively charged, often playful, quasi-religious practices.