Inoue Nobutaka, (Japanese 井上順孝 Nobutaka Inoue) (born 1948), is a Japanese scholar of religious studies, who specializes in modern

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

studies. He is a Professor Emeritius at

Kokugakuin University Kokugakuin University (國學院大學; ''Kokugakuin Daigaku'', abbreviated as 國學大 ''Kokugakudai'' or 國大 ''Kokudai'') is a private university, whose main office is in Tokyo's Shibuya district. The academic programs and research include ...

Education

Nobutaka attended the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in Religious Studies. His thesis was written on the topic of ''Arguments Regarding Religious Freedom in the Meiji Period''. In graduate school he was influenced by

Hirata Atsutane was a Japanese scholar, conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies, and one of the most significant theologians of the Shintō religion. His literary name was , and his primary assumed name was . He also u ...

, a Japanese theologian who lived during the Edo period.

Work

In 1982, Inoue resigned from his position on the faculty of literature at the University of Tokyo, to take a job at Kokugakuin University. There he founded the Japanese Association for the Study of Religion and Society, and the Religious Information Research Center, an archive centered on the study of modern Japanese religion. Beginning in 1990, he served as co-editor of the definitve work, ''Encyclopedia of New Religions'' that covered over 400 religious leaders and 300 new religious groups in Japan. In 1995, he helped to moderate and temper society's reponses to the

Aum Shinrikyo , formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year. The group says tha ...

terrorist attack in Tokyo.

Selected publications

Following the print version, Nobutaka developed an online version of ''Encyclopedia of Shinto''. Other publications include ''Shinto: A Short History'', 2003, Taylor & Francis. co-authored with Endo Jun, Mori Mizue, Ito Satoshi.; ''Folk Beliefs in Modern Japan'', 1994, Institute for Japanese Culture and Classics, Kokugakuin University.; ''Contemporary Japanese Religion'', 2000, Foreign Press Center, Japan, among others.

Honors

In 2019, Inoue was elected as an International Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

References

External links

Official websiteInoue Nobutaka on Japanese WikipediaInoue Nobutaka on German Wikipedia
{{DEFAULTSORT:NOBUTAKA, INOUE Shinto Japanese scholars Japanese academics 1948 births University of Tokyo alumni Kokugakuin University History of religion in Japan Religion in Japan Japanese folk religion