Oh yeah tell me about it. Every single shrine I hit in Kyoto... it was 500-600 yen.. and this was when exchange rate was 90 yen per dollar!

You're confusing temples with shrines.

shrines can be happy with an offering as little as 5 yen. https://guidable.co/culture/japanese-shrines-how-much-donati...

https://japantoday.com/category/features/lifestyle/busting-o...

Offering is optional. Entrance fee is not. Most major temples have mandatory entrance fee

> The cost is minuscule compared to the ROI. Religion in Japan is big business, just like your home country.

That's a very western way of looking at things.

Alternatively, it can be viewed as a community crowdsourcing and preserving culture.

No, it's a sceptical way of looking at it.

Most western people also view donating to religious institutions is a way of supporting their communities and culture. Collectivism isn't a monopoly of the east.

> Collectivism isn't a monopoly of the east.

Is that why people in the West refuse to wear mask?

Ah you're right, I've never seen anyone wear a mask ever in the past 3 years.

The current religion in Japan was mostly consciously invented in the Meiji period so Westerners couldn’t say they were religion-less savages who needed colonizing.

(Same goes for most modern forms of Buddhism.)

> consciously invented in the Meiji period

So the Meiji government traveled back in time a thousand years and erected Shinto shrines all over Japan?

Then you should know imperial shrines are obviously different.

I’ve been to 47 prefectures of Japan and thousands of shrines. I’m well aware imperial shrines exist.

Just because American politicians utilize the word God does not mean they invented Christianity.

By “the current religion” I mean the practices of lay people, not the buildings. Like not literally believing that kami exist, but doing hatsumode + Buddhist funerals.

The Christian-like wedding ceremonies are more recent than that I guess.