My research has focused on two themes; the first is the history of Shinto and other Japanese religions around it, and second is the history of religions generally, and particularly on their varied relations on nationalism in modern period.
I examined the history of the former overseas Shinto shrines, especially under the Japanese imperial rule in my doctoral thesis and other shorter works. These examinations (sorry, all of them are written in Japanese)are ones which combined these two interests.
In these works I interpreted the history of Shinto shrines in the colonized Korea and Taiwan as an ultimately failed effort to pluralize a polytheistic religion in a multiethnic empirefs society. I also suggested that the hasty adoption of the separation between state and religions, as well as the Japanese classification of shrine Shinto as a non-religious public ritual system under the control of the government contributed to this failure.
Now I plan to expand my research on nationalism, and state policy and its implications towards religious pluralism. These issues touch upon the nature of Shinto in contemporary Japan. I believe that for Shinto to simply emphasize its polytheistic nature is not adequate to being about a sense of pluralism in Japanese society and to meet the challenge of diversity in present world.