India & Japan: Two Most Religiously Mature Nations- Forgotten History and Future Synergy Direction

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Dr. Fukahori Yasukata is currently the Consul-General of Japan in Mumbai, As a diplomat of Japan, he spent over 25 years in foreign countries including Australia, Myanmar, United Kingdom, Thailand, U.S.A. (twice in Washington, DC and Atlanta), Vietnam and India (twice in New Delhi and Mumbai). He holds Ph.D. in environmental economics. He is an award winner of Rakumugi Publishing Contest in Japan in 2023 with his book Japan: The Most Religiously.

Mature Nation. This book rightly illustrates how mature the Indian religious culture is. The author maintains that Hinduism is religiously the most mature in the global community today. He compares Hinduism with Japanese religions, i.e., Shintoism and Buddhism, and proves that there are striking similarities between them. It is amazing to know that "Indians and the Japanese have been worshiping the same gods for 1500 long years"

He also argues that other Indian religious groups have all as well quite matured in terms that they all respect each other and have coexisted for centuries.

This book came out of his love for India.

During the time of Corona in Mumbai, I started writing a document comparing major religions in the world. India is a country, probably the richest in religious culture, where all major religions have coexisted for centuries. I wanted to compare such Indian religions with our religions in Japan; and that turned out to be quite an enlightening process for me because I found, to my surprise, profound similarity, not difference, between Hinduism and Japanese religions.

1 completed the document after Corona and sent it to a publishing contest in Japan. To my great surprise and pleasure, it won a top prize and was published as a book in Japan titled as“日本宗教卒業国文化論(Japan: The Religiously Most Mature Nation) ". 1 received a number of encouraging words from readers in Japan.

However, the book was written in Japanese and there seemed to be no plan for it to be translated into English. I, therefore, decided to write a book for potential readers in India. While taking many points from my book in Japan, this book is not a direct translation. I tried to make it better for Indian readers to understand why I considered Hinduism and Japanese Shintoism/ Buddhism the most religiously mature in the world.

I sincerely wish that this book would let Indians understand how close and friendly India and Japan are to each other.

I wish to note that all comments and positions taken in this book are all mine and that they are not those of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. All responsibility regarding any points stated in this book falls only on me.