LAUSR

Komatsu Kayoko is Professor in the Department of Global Studies, Tama University. This article examines the issue of spirituality for women in today’s world based on interviews with twenty-two women who are involved with spirituality or healing in Japan. I show that from these interviews, they make the effort to navigate their encounters with spirituality and healing productively and to positively attribute significance to their lives. They sense in spiritual ways of life a power with the ability to activate collective energies capable of achieving global social change that is motivated not by anger but by joy, and that is capable of envisioning a better world. These women have found ways to live outside established, organized religions. They can have human relationships that are not limited by the norms of their families, and where they live by connecting online with like-minded people and sharing ideas with them. They are profoundly involved in living their own lives. The actions of women such as these are bringing about a transformation in views of gender in Japan.