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I've read somewhere that Japan is considered very religious yet not religious at all. Shinto in Japan isn't considered a religion its considered a cultural identity.
There are a number of Christians in higher up political positions in Japan and even they have to adhere to Shinto in some way.

The current prime minister is a Protestant Christian and is left wing. And yet he has come out in protest against the destruction of Shinto Shrines and called it an "attack on Japan and Japanese culture"

A previous prime minister Taro Aso is very right wing and Catholic and he had called Japan "the land of the gods" which is a Shinto belief not a Christian one.

The Imperial Japanese government officially classified Shinto as not being a religion but something that every Japanese person needs to follow because its "common sense". It was only after ww2 where America called it "State Shinto"(State Shinto is an American term not a Japanese one) and forced the government to classify it as a religion and removed it from government by enforcing seperation of state and religion . .


The Shinto Directive was an order issued in 1945 to the Japanese government by Occupation authorities to abolish state support for Shinto . This unofficial "State Shinto" was thought by Allies to have been a major contributor to Japan's nationalistic and militant culture