Religion and Ethics Links

This page is not complete. If you have any suggestions, please contact me.
1. World religions
What are the main religions in the world? How many members do they have, and in what countries? For
up-to-date statistics relating to religion, see adherents.com

What are the basic features of the main religions (and of atheism)? The BBC (the British equivalent of NHK) has two interesting sites:
The religion section of the Religion and Ethics site is of general interest. It contains video material and quizzes as well as written explanations.
The religion section of the One Life site is aimed at teenagers and focusses on the personal religious experiences of young British people. The language is more colloquial. It also contains video material.
Some articles about female Muslims and the veil: from the Observer, a British Sunday newspaper; Abalagh, an Islamic E-journal; Radio Netherlands
For general information about Buddhist art, see this section of the Pacific Asia Museum of Los Angeles.

2. Religion in Japan
Of course, the sites given in the first section also contain information on religion in Japan. For example, here is a section about Shinto from the BBC.
The Face of Buddhism and Shintoism in Japanese Art is a fantastic collection of images, particularly sculpture; the explanations are also well written.
This site from the University of Virginia, gives brief information and useful links on 'religious movements', including Shinto as well as Tenrikyo. Click here for an alphabetical listing of the movements covered. (Unfortunately, however, not all the links are still functioning.)
For detailed information on Shinto, see Kokugakuin Daigaku's Encyclopedia of Shinto.
This is a cleverly designed site about Zen, if you have time to view it properly.
Zen koan, translated from various sources.
3. Ethical issues (mainly with reference to Japan)
Human rights
For the Japan section of Amnesty International's most recent Annual Report (on events in 2006), click here. For a list of Amnesty International documents on Japan, click here. Their main concerns are the death penalty, the comfort women (see below, under World War II), and the treatment of immigrants and asylum-seekers. Of course, it would probably be a good idea to compare the section on Japan with the sections on other countries, such as South Korea, the UK, and the US.
The BBC repeats Amnesty International's criticisms of police behavior in forcing suspects to make confessions in this article (dated 29 October 2007). For recent (Dec. 2007) BBC coverage of the death penalty in Japan, click here, and here.
Foreigners and crime
See this article from the Guardian website (dated 6 December, 2005), that criticizes the way in which the Japanese media treat this topic.
For the policy of fingerprinting foreigners at airports, see this BBC article (dated 29 October 2007) and this one (dated 20 November 2007).
Prison conditions
Japanese prisons do not have a good reputation (neither have prisons in the US and the UK). This article, from the BBC website (4 November, 2005), is about the death of a prisoner.
Terrorism
Why is Narita airport so carefully guarded? Is it to stop dangerous foreigners from getting out of the airport? No, it is to stop dangerous Japanese from getting into the airport! Click here to find out why.
The Japanese Red Army was active outside Japan.

Whaling
This article from the BBC website (dated June 16, 2006), gives the background to this issue with a link to a critical analysis of the Japanese position. The page also provides links to BBC reports on the 2006 conference of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), to organisations on both sides of the controversy, and to comments from ordinary people. (For the latter, click 'Have Your Say', about halfway down the column on the right with all the links.) There was a link to this article from the top page of the BBC News (World Edition) website on 9 November, 2005. For the Japanese view, see the Institute of Cetacean Research.
For another British view, see here, and here.
In a series of articles linked to his radio documentary (first broadcast on 17 May 2007), Richard Black, a BBC environment correspondent, takes a critical view of conservationist actions at the beginning of the ban (16 May 2007), and examines the complex image of whales and dolphins in Japan (23 May 2007). He also asks whether the results of Japanese research on whale carcasses justify whaling for scientific purposes (25 May, 2007), and puts the eating of whale meat in a comparative perspective (27 May, 2007). In this article (30 May, 2007), Chris Hogg, the BBC World Service's Japan correspondent, claims that the Japanese government's strong support for whaling does not have the overall support of Japanese public opinion.

World War II
The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: This article from the BBC website (dated June 20, 2005), reports the discovery of journalist George Weller's account of his visit to Nagasaki one month after the bomb was dropped. There are also links to other news articles about the bombs.
A British view of World War II: a page containing links to various articles, images, videos etc. on the BBC website.
Click here to see how the BBC reported the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, and here to see extracts from a variety of newspapers (selected by Guardian Unlimited, the website of a left-of-centre British newspaper). For links to other Guardian Unlimited articles on Hiroshima, click here.
Click here to see how the BBC reported the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki.
Click here for an article on Japan's attitude to World War II, and here for an article and links related to the end of the war.
Suicide attacks (神風、回天)
Bill Gordon's Kamikaze images website contains materials that show both the American and Japanese standpoint. As one would expect, they are very different.
Comfort Women (従軍慰安婦）: Amnesty International's website has a section dealing with the human aspect, and a report on the fight for a legal settlement (dated 28 October, 2005). The report places the issues of sexual violence against women and the plight of survivors of conflict in a wide historical and global context, recognizing that it is not a problem of relevance only to Japan. See also this collection of links compiled by people affiliated with San Francisco State University.

For information about immigration to Japan etc., click here and here; also here. The BBC also has an article here.

The arms trade
How big is Japan's arms industry? See this article from the Japan Times (20 June, 2004), especially the list of the five main arms manufacturers at the bottom. Also see an article from the Japanese Institute of Global Communications (19 November, 2004).
Does Japan export any arms to foreign countries? See page 18 of this report from the International Action Network on Small Arms (22 June, 2005).
How does Japan rank as an importer of arms from the US? See the tables in this report for the US Congress (8 December, 2004).

Fair trade

The debate over the reform of the Japanese constitution
Some articles from the BBC website: 19 November, 2004 (with extracts from Chinese, Korean and Japanese newspapers), 28 October, 2005, 22 November 2005, and 10 November 2006. The last article refers to Abe Shinzo's position.
This article from Newsweek (7 February, 2005) has more information on public opinion within Japan.
This article from Japan Today (22 September 2004) mentions its relevance to Japan's chances of a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
How the Korea Times reacted to Koizumi's election victory (12 September, 2005).

Organ transplants
A report on the scarcity of donors in Japan from the BBC website

Corruption (in politics/business etc.)
Transparency International is an international organization that is organizing a global campaign against corruption. (For information about its activities, and about the definition of corruption, see "About Us"It has a Japanese branch.

Gender equality This government pamphlet: Gender Equality in Japan 2007, contains useful data.

3. Fun with ethics!
Here are some pages with games that help you to think about your ethical views:

This is a game about the ethics of lying: To lie or not to lie? You will find similar BBC/Open University material related to justice here.

These games from The Philosophers' Magazine are also very well made. For example, "Morality Play" helps you to analyse your approach to issues of ethical behavior.

4. Video discussions of ethical issues.
Annenberg media has two series on ethics: American Ethics, and American Ethics II. These consist of discussions in which ordinary people and experts from various fields (including medicine, the law, and business) explore practical ethical dilemmas.
Note: You have to register in order to watch the videos online. (Click "other" in the column for "state" since you are not any state of the U.S. If you cannot work out how to register, please contact me. It is really worth the effort!)