The discrepancy between the number of "believing Shintoists" and Shintoists is explained when we remember that all persons in government employ—military and naval officers, officials in the civil service, and teachers in government schools—must be nominal Shintoists, even though they are Buddhists at heart.
I cannot better close this chapter than by giving the opinions of a few representative people of different faiths and nationalities upon the subject of missions in Japan.
Professor Masumi Hino of Doshisha University, a Christian Japanese, gives reasons why none of the old faiths will meet the needs of Japan to-day. He says, "Shinto stands for polytheism, which in Japan stands side by side with skepticism and religious indifference." He credits Confucianism with teaching "fair and square dealings with every man," but adds, "It nevertheless fails to meet the people's yearning after the eternal values." Buddhism will also, he believes, "fail to be the supreme spiritual force in Japan," because it does not attach sufficient importance to ethical teaching; because it sinks the individual in "the absolute and the whole;" and because its belief in immortality is "based on the pessimistic view of life."
Professor Hino acknowledges his own debt and that of the Japanese people to all three religions, but questions whether any of these can meet the pressure of twentieth-century life and problems. For himself he believes Christianity alone "is able to meet the demands of the coming generation in Japan."
Mr. E. J. Harrison, a resident of Japan for fourteen years, says in his book, "The Fighting Spirit of Japan":
"I venture the opinion merely for what it may be worth, but that opinion is, that those who flatter themselves that the day will ever dawn when the Japanese as a people will profess Christianity imagine a vain thing, and are pursuing a will-o'-the-wisp. They will dabble in Christianity as they have dabbled and are dabbling in numerous other 'anities,' 'isms,' and 'ologies'; but the sort of Christianity which will ultimately be evolved in Japan will have very little in common with its various prototypes of the Occident." Most people residing in Japan for any length of time agree with Mr. Harrison.
Then there is the missionary opinion. As recently as August 22, 1913, Rev. Dr. Greene wrote from Tokyo:
"Everything points to an increased appreciation of the place of religion in human life. The rapid headway which the more spiritual philosophy of the West, as represented by Bergson and Eucken, is making among the thoughtful men of Japan, including the young men of the universities, suggests much promise. Professor Anezaki, head of the department of Comparative Religion in the Imperial University of Tokyo, said not long ago that the students were weary of the materialism still propagated by certain of the older Japanese thinkers, and were seeking guidance of younger men imbued with the more recent philosophical thought.
"If the Christian leaders will but put themselves in harmony with this deep-flowing stream, they may well indulge the brightest hopes."
At a special gathering of public men in Tokyo in 1913, when evangelistic preachers from America were present, Baron Sakatani, the Mayor, although not a Christian himself, said: