Caring as Serving: Lay Buddhist Childcare as Reflective Responses to Societal and Organizational Expectations

This paper examines contemporary Japanese lay Buddhist childcare through a case study of the Tendai-derived lay Buddhist organization Kōdō Kyōdan and its childcare programs. Founded in 1936, Kōdō Kyōdan bases its central teaching on an expansive understanding of filial piety that encompasses all sentient beings beyond biological ties and is considered a New Religious Movement despite its amicable relationship with traditional Buddhist institutions. Against the backdrop of Japan’s low birth rate, three childcare programs at Kōdō Kyōdan’s headquarters in the city of Yokohama were established at the turn of the 21st century to address demographic concerns at both the national and organizational levels. Compared to their popularity in the local community in the years before the pandemic, the programs’ attendance has dropped significantly since the pandemic. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted since 2018, this paper investigates lay Buddhists’ understanding and practice of hōshi (serving) in their relationships with the religious organization, family, and society in the context of public caution against religious proselytization. This paper argues that by reflectively responding to societal and organizational expectations, the childcare staff members at Kōdō Kyōdan negotiate their roles as childcare providers, Buddhist practitioners, and women. This research will contribute to scholarly dialogues on secularization, civil society, and gender.

Current scholarship on Buddhist social engagement and its history tends to focus on priests in relation to Buddhist institutions, external organizations, and the groups they assist. However, the dynamics of lay Buddhists, whose support and participation are crucial for the daily management and operation of religious organizations, often remain overshadowed by their lack of religious professionalism and charismatic leadership compared to that of the priesthood. In the current context of the pandemic and the assassination of former Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, the potential shift in how lay Buddhists understand their relationship to their religious organizations as dedicated members has become more nuanced. In other words, concerns about infection, heated public discussions on the grave impact of certain New Religious Movements on society and their younger generations, coupled with internal factors such as aging membership, have led many lay Buddhists to reconsider their roles and responsibilities both within and outside religious organizations. Through the case study of Kōdō Kyōdan, this paper delves into the divergent identities and roles of lay Buddhists in society and within their own organization. It explores the extent to which the staff members, mostly women, are invested in childcare programs and how they perceive their roles as caregivers and Buddhists.

Based in the city of Yokohama, Kōdō Kyōdan currently has over 128,000 members and is the third largest group within the Japanese Tendai Buddhist tradition. Despite being a New Religious Movement that originally split off from the lay Buddhist organization Reiyūkai, Kōdō Kyōdan has sought to build its image as part of the traditional Buddhist community in the postwar years. Under the husband-and-wife leadership of the founders Okano Shōdō and Okano Kimiko, Kōdō Kyōdan has a long history of funding projects for the public good. Following the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 and the enactment of the Law for the Promotion of Specified Nonprofit Activities in 1998, Kōdō Kyōdan began to develop its own childcare programs, managed by its staff members at the headquarters, as part of the civic social welfare initiatives encouraged by the government. In 2001, 2002, and 2008, respectively, it established its three childcare programs: Wakuku, Sukusuku, and Hidamari. Divided into different age groups starting with newborns, these three programs are designed to enrich the lives of preschool children and support their parents.

The three childcare programs, which are open to the public, proved to be successful in the local community in the decade following their establishment. Hidamari, for example, welcomed as many as two hundred participants, including children and their parents, at each of its twice-monthly sessions. The staff members, the majority of whom are female Kōdō Kyōdan members, volunteered to receive training, set up the space for Hidamari sessions, clean up, and reflect on each session. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, concerns about infection among high-risk groups—the staff members who are over sixty-five years old and the children—led Kōdō Kyōdan to quickly suspend its childcare programs. Sukusuku, the program for parent-child interaction through light exercises, was able to resume its sessions via Zoom, allowing participants to follow the staff-led exercises from home. Others, like Hidamari, were paused for two years before resuming in June 2022. As a result, attendance at all three childcare programs dropped dramatically. The once popular, even crowded, Hidamari had fewer than ten parent-child pairs in attendance each session in the first year after its sessions resumed. Yet, the staff members who ran these programs were not necessarily eager to address the issue of declining attendance. This raised a number of questions: What has caused this mindset among the staff members that seems to be “indifferent” toward changing the current situation? Are there any individual or organizational attempts to improve the attendance rate? To what extent is volunteering at the childcare programs part of the staff members’ life and faith?

Through ethnographic research conducted since 2018, and especially during the COVID-19 crisis from 2020 onwards, this study aims to answer the aforementioned questions by investigating the positioning of lay Buddhists in their childcare efforts. In addition to the Buddhist priesthood, lay Buddhists constitute a vibrant force that connects temple grounds with the public by bringing their experiences of secular work and life into Buddhist social welfare efforts. By examining the Kōdō Kyōdan staff members’ understanding of their roles as qualified caregivers, this study hopes to demonstrate that the rhetoric of hōshi (serving) not only informs their self-expectations as lay Buddhists but also enables them to reflectively respond to societal, familial, and organizational expectations as women.