Psycho-Spiritual Care & Buddhist Chaplaincy, Suicide Prevention, and End-of-Life Care

Psycho-spiritual disease and the struggle with mortality is a pressing matter in contemporary Japan on a number of fronts. In the next forty to fifty years, roughly eighty million Japanese people will die due to natural causes because of its rapidly aging population demographic. Since 1998, Japan has experienced over 30,000 suicides per year – a number which crosses all age groups and expresses the deep sense of human alienation from years of rapid economic development. Finally, the trauma of the 3/11 tsunami and the subsequent nuclear incident in Fukushima has further unsettled a people who had been firmly rooted in traditions of intimate community. In an attempt to revive their connections to society and community, more and more Buddhist priests are engaging in pro-active psycho-spiritual support for the living and suffering, rather than what has become their role over the past few centuries of acting as ritualists for the dead.

Psycho-Spiritual Care & Buddhist Chaplaincy

• The Rinsho Buddhism Chaplaincy Training Program 7^th Comprehensive Training Session (2020-2021)
• Rebuilding Human Bonds amidst Japan’s Disconnected Society: A Buddhist Path through Rural Decline, Migrant Laborers, Poverty & Homelessness (October 13, 2020)
• Planting Seeds of Care at Sites of Suffering: The Rinsho Buddhist Chaplain Training Program Enters Its 7th year with Commencement Ceremony and Public Seminar (June 18, 2020)
• The Rinsho Buddhism Chaplaincy Training Program 6^th Comprehensive Training Session (2019-20)
• Café for Carer’s Peace of Mind (June 2019)
• Standing at the Edge – Creating Balance and Resiliency in Psycho-Spiritual Care: Special Seminar #2 with Rev. Joan Halifax (April 22, 2019)
• Understanding the Interconnectedness of Personal and Social Suffering through Engaged Buddhism: Special Seminar with Rev. Joan Halifax (December 17, 2018)
• Towards Reviving a Society with Connection (yu-en): The Hitosaji Association’s Work with the Homeless and Disconnected (mu-en) (October 4, 2018)
• Contemplative Care & Spirituality: Going Beyond Mindfulness Practice for Being with Suffering & Grief Public Symposium presented by the Rinbutsuken Institute for Engaged Buddhism, the Sophia University Institute of Grief Care, and the Tokyo Jikei Medical University Palliative Care Center (November 4, 2017)
• Considering Life (Inochi) Care: What Sort of Spiritual Care can be Adapted to Japanese Spirituality? Public Symposium sponsored by the Rinbutsuken Institute for Engaged Buddhism and the Kyoto University Kokoro (Heart-Mind) Center Kyoto (September 15, 2016)
• Contemplative Engagement: The Development of Buddhist Chaplaincy in the United States & Its Meaning for Japan by Jonathan S. Watts and Rev. Jin Hitoshi (November 2015)
• The Rinsho Buddhism Chaplaincy Training Program  (2013->)
• Ghosts of the Tsunami (a profile of the work of Rev. Taio Kaneda, abbot of Tsudai-ji, a Soto Zen temple in Kurihara City, Miyagi & supervisor of Cafe de Monk, which provides counseling in disaster stricken areas) by Richard Lloyd Parry (London Review of Books, Vol. 36 No. 3, February 6, 2014)
• Buddhism and Social Activism in Today’s Japan: The Activities of the Hitosaji Association by Rev. Akinori Takase (May 25, 2013)
• Buddhist Priests Who Are Present at the Time of Death by Kyoko Isa Asahi Shimbun January 28, 2013 (evening edition)
• The Power of Prayer in Reviving Localities in Japan by Kyoko Isa (Asahi Shimbun November 20, 2012)
• The Potential of Rinsho Buddhism and Developing Buddhist Chaplaincy in Post 3/11 Japan by Rev. Hitoshi Jin (November 28, 2012)
• The Deep Listening Gyocha Volunteer Activities of  the Soto Zen Youth Association by Rev. Taiko Kyuma (January, 2012)
• Psycho-Spiritual Relief Work in the Tsunami Areas: An Interview with Rev. Jin Hitoshi by Jonathan Watts (November, 2011)

Suicide Prevention

• The Warmth of Connection: A Buddhist Path to the Realization of Healing (International Roundtable on Buddhist Psychology, Psycho-Spiritual Counseling, and Chaplaincy Training, March 12-15, 2019)
• Re-Awakening to Our Inter-connected World: 1^st International Conference on Buddhism, Suicide Prevention, and Psycho-Spiritual Counseling (November 6-10, 2017; Conference report August, 2018)
• This Man Can Rescue You From “Death by Overwork” : short film about Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto on use of meditation and Buddhism to confront suicide and to face death  (Unlimited powered by UBS Sep 12, 2017) contact us for a copy
• The Departure : full length documentary on the life and work of Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto by Lana Wilson (May 2017)
• Journey Through Dukkha: The Suicide Prevention Priests of Japan Enter into Structural Violence and Connect to Social Change (April 15, 2014)
• LAST CALL: A Buddhist monk confronts Japan’s suicide culture (Profile of Rev. Jotetsu Nemoto in The New Yorker Magazine June 24, 2013)
• From a Disconnected Society to an Interconnected Society Rev. Toshihide Shun’ei Hakamata published in The Eastern Buddhist 44/2: 77–94 (2013)
• 2013 Outlook: The Present Situation and the Coming Future of the Suicide Problem by Rev. Yukan Ogawa (Bukkyo Times January 31, 2013)
• Reconstructing Priestly Identity and Roles in Contemporary Japan and the Development of Socially Engaged Buddhism by Jonathan Watts & Rev. Masazumi Okano (2012)

Hospice and Care for the Dying