In religious studies, an ethnic religion is a religion or belief associated with a particular ethnic group. Ethnic religions are often distinguished from universal religions, such as Christianity or Islam, which are not limited in ethnic, national or racial scope.

Universalizing religions offer belief systems that are attractive to the universal population. They look for new members and welcome anyone and everyone who wishes to adopt their belief system. Universalizing religions have many diverse members, who come from different ethnic backgrounds, hence the term universal.

What is the difference between a universalizing religion & an ethnic religion? Universalizing religions attempt to be global, appeal to all people rather than just a group of people while an ethnic religion appeals primarily to one group of people living in one place.

Christianity is not concentrated in one specific location. Because it is universalizing, it appeals to many people in many areas. However, it is mainly predominant in the Western Hemisphere, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Europe. Certain branches of Christianity are autonomous while others are hierarchical.

A particular religion certain to one culture group. What is a universal religion? A religion that is in universal scope, which is available to everyone to convert to.

Buddhism is an universalizing religion. This means that it is a religion practiced worldwide. An individual can be any race, nationality, or ethic in order to study Buddhism.

The Buddha’s Indian origins allowed scholars to proclaim the Buddha as an Aryan, a term that, while originally a linguistic designation, by the nineteenth century came to designate an ancient master race.

Explain the difference between an ethnic group and a religious group. An ethnic group is a group of people who share cultural ideas and beliefs that have been a part of their community for generations. A religious group shares a belief system in a god or gods, with a specific set of rituals and literature.

Large Buddhist populations live in North Korea, Nepal, India and South Korea. China is the country with the largest population of Buddhists, approximately 244 million or 18.2% of its total population. They are mostly followers of Chinese schools of Mahayana, making this the largest body of Buddhist traditions.

Followers of Buddhism don’t acknowledge a supreme god or deity. They instead focus on achieving enlightenment—a state of inner peace and wisdom. When followers reach this spiritual echelon, they’re said to have experienced nirvana. The religion’s founder, Buddha, is considered an extraordinary man, but not a god.

Buddhists made up roughly 7% of the world’s population in 2015, but they are expected to decrease to roughly 5% by 2060. This is because Buddhists have relatively low fertility rates compared with other religious groups, and they are not expected to grow significantly due to conversions or religious switching.

Japanese religion has traditionally been syncretic in nature, combining elements of Buddhism and Shinto (Shinbutsu-shūgō). Shinto, a polytheistic religion with no book of religious canon, is Japan’s native religion.

Shinto

A recent study (2018) shows that the Japanese are predominantly descendants of the Yayoi people and are closely related to other modern East Asians, especially Koreans and Han Chinese. It is estimated that the majority of Japanese only has about 12% Jōmon ancestry or even less.

Ethnic Groups And Nationalities In Japan

Ethnic Groups: Japanese 98.1%, Chinese 0.5%, Korean 0.4%, other 1% (includes Filipino, Vietnamese, and Brazilian) (2016 est.)

The majority of Japan is made up of Japanese people who solely speak Japanese. In 1999, 99.4% of the population was Japanese. This means that only 0.6% belonged to other ethnic groups. The largest ethnic minority in Japan is a group of around 700,000 Koreans.

In the 2017 World Happiness Report, Japan ranked 51st on the happiness scale, sliding in between Belize and Lithuania. Among rich and advanced nations, only South Korea ranked lower at 56th. Rounding out East Asia, Taiwan was happiest at 33, Hong Kong was 71st while China was the laggard at 79th.

One proposed reason is increased social isolation. A decreasing proportion of elderly Japanese people are living in multi-generational housing and are instead living alone. Additionally, the economic slump in Japan since 1990 has been cited as contributing to the increase in lonely deaths.

For the fourth year in a row, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world, with Iceland coming in second, followed by Denmark, Switzerland and the Netherlands. In the 2019 World Happiness Report, the United States was even lower, at number 19.