Practicing Spiritual Care in the Japanese Hospice

Abstract

This article introduces how spiritual care is practiced in Japanese hospices to fit the needs of nonreligious patients. It suggests that Japanese chaplains often go beyond helping patients vocalize spiritual pain and addressing anxieties through counseling, religious support, or being a sympathetic presence. Rather, much of spiritual care is also conducted in the margins of daily care, and through special group events or even prosaic activities-an approach that elicits less resistance by Japanese patients. This article will also discuss how examining the practice of spiritual care helps to problematize terms like "secular" or "post-secular" in Japanese society and point out the ways in which spiritual care is being marshaled by contemporary religious groups, chaplains, the media, and religious studies scholars to help valorize the role religion can play in Japanese society by emphasizing its psychotherapeutic contributions.keywords: spiritual care-chaplaincy-hospice-Vihāra-secularism Japanese Journal of Religious

Dislocation, Social Isolation, and the Politics of Recovery in Post-Disaster Japan

“… 12 See also Benedict (2018) ’s study of spiritual care in hospices performed by religious professionals in Japan. …”