{ "model": { "rank": 16048, "code": "thing-q1056672", "model_id": "vr.tr.religion-in-japan", "name": "religion in Japan", "purpose": "Let an agent describe religion in Japan neutrally with attribution to the traditions and to scholarship and statistics, explain the coexistence of Shinto and Buddhism and the place of other faiths, relay legal and demographic information, and route religious guidance to the communities.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.ORG", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q1056672/", "tier": 2, "score": 33, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "Kuro-kyō", "Fuji worship", "Confucianism in Japan", "Japanese Mazu worship", "Islam in Japan", "Hinduism in Japan", "Christianity in Japan", "Bahá'í Faith in Japan", "religion in Ryukyu", "eclectic school", "kogaku", "Catholic Church in Japan", "Protestantism in Japan", "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Japan", "Jehovah's Witnesses in Japan", "kobunji school" ], "aliasCount": 16, "merged": 16, "knownIn": 33, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q1056672", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1056672", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T20:42:23Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 3, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q1056672", "registryId": "vr.tr.religion-in-japan", "name": "religion in Japan", "version": "0.2.0-wave.3", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.ORG" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q1056672/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.religion-in-japan", "name": "religion in Japan", "purpose": "Let an agent describe religion in Japan neutrally with attribution to the traditions and to scholarship and statistics, explain the coexistence of Shinto and Buddhism and the place of other faiths, relay legal and demographic information, and route religious guidance to the communities.", "definition": "The religious landscape of Japan, shaped mainly by Shinto and Buddhism practised together by most people, with Confucian influence, new religious movements, Christianity and other minority faiths; religious affiliation is fluid, many people take part in rites of several traditions, and the constitution guarantees freedom of religion and separates religion from the state.", "what_it_is_for": "Not applicable; a description of religious life in a country.", "affordances": [ "explain the main traditions and their coexistence", "relay affiliation and practice statistics with sources", "explain the legal framework", "present debates with attribution" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Coexistence of Shinto and Buddhism", "Practice without exclusive affiliation", "Constitutional separation of religion and state", "Many new religious movements" ], "appearance": "Not a visible object; seen in shrines, temples, festivals, home altars and churches.", "visual_identification": [ "Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples used by the same people", "Constitutional freedom of religion and separation of state", "Religion in other countries and individual traditions are separate entries" ], "physical_properties": [ { "quantity": "reported affiliations", "typical_range": "exceed the population", "unit": "count", "note": "because people are counted by several traditions" }, { "quantity": "self-identified religious", "typical_range": "about a third", "unit": "proportion", "note": "surveys vary" } ], "families_and_kinds": [ "Shinto", "Buddhism in its Japanese schools", "Confucian and folk practices", "new religious movements", "Christianity in Japan", "Islam, Hinduism and other minority religions", "mountain worship and syncretic traditions" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "religion by country", "why": "a national religious landscape" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "Shinto", "why": "a main tradition" }, { "relation": "includes", "target": "Japanese Buddhism", "why": "a main tradition" }, { "relation": "is governed by", "target": "Constitution of Japan", "why": "freedom of religion provisions" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Constitution of Japan articles on freedom of religion and separation", "Religious Corporations Act", "Statistical surveys by the Agency for Cultural Affairs" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Treating affiliation statistics as exclusive counts", "Presenting one tradition or interpretation as the whole", "Contested issues such as state and shrine relations presented as settled", "Stereotyping" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "landscape", "name": "Landscape", "description": "The main traditions.", "rationale": "Attribution.", "layers": [ { "id": "traditions", "name": "Traditions", "description": "Shinto, Buddhism and others.", "findings": [ { "id": "traditions-finding", "name": "Traditions", "description": "Traditions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What are the main traditions in Japan, and how do people practise them together, as described by scholarship?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the question about religion in Japan generally or about one tradition?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "practice", "name": "Practice", "description": "Everyday practice.", "findings": [ { "id": "practice-finding", "name": "Practice", "description": "Practice.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do rites of passage, festivals and home practice combine traditions?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific tradition?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "data", "name": "Data", "description": "Statistics.", "rationale": "Sources.", "layers": [ { "id": "affiliation", "name": "Affiliation", "description": "Affiliation figures.", "findings": [ { "id": "affiliation-finding", "name": "Affiliation", "description": "Affiliation.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do official statistics and surveys report, and why do affiliations exceed the population?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "Which sources and years are cited?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "minorities", "name": "Minorities", "description": "Minority religions.", "findings": [ { "id": "minorities-finding", "name": "Minorities", "description": "Minorities.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the situation of Christianity, Islam and other minority religions?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits a specific community?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "law", "name": "Law", "description": "Law and state.", "rationale": "Regulation.", "layers": [ { "id": "constitution", "name": "Constitution", "description": "Freedom and separation.", "findings": [ { "id": "constitution-finding", "name": "Constitution", "description": "Constitution.", "questions": [ { "text": "What do the constitution and the Religious Corporations Act provide?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits freedom of religion?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "debates", "name": "Debates", "description": "Contested questions.", "findings": [ { "id": "debates-finding", "name": "Debates", "description": "Debates.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are debates about shrine visits by officials, new religious movements and regulation presented, with positions attributed?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and attributed?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History and study.", "rationale": "History.", "layers": [ { "id": "past", "name": "Past", "description": "Historical development.", "findings": [ { "id": "past-finding", "name": "Past", "description": "Past.", "questions": [ { "text": "How did religion in Japan develop from early Shinto and the arrival of Buddhism through the Meiji separation to today?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "handling", "name": "Handling", "description": "Handling and guidance.", "findings": [ { "id": "handling-finding", "name": "Handling", "description": "Handling.", "questions": [ { "text": "What rules apply to data about religious belief?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the user seeking religious guidance, which the community provides?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should new religious movements be a separate entry?", "How should survey sources be linked?", "The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific movements and minority religions; should they be split off?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "organisation or institution", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a religion in Japan, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent describe religion in Japan neutrally with attribution to the traditions and to scholarship and statistics, explain the coexistence of Shinto and Buddhism and the place of other faiths, relay legal and demographic information, and route religious guidance to the communities.", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "collective" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: Kuro-kyō, Fuji worship, Confucianism in Japan, Japanese Mazu worship, Islam in Japan, Hinduism in Japan, Christianity in Japan, Bahá'í Faith in Japan, religion in Ryukyu, eclectic school, kogaku, Catholic Church in Japan.", "16 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 33 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a religion in Japan, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Acts through people, and only through them.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. Recognised by name, register entry and the people acting in its name, and those change while it stays the same body." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "Kuro-kyō", "Fuji worship", "Confucianism in Japan", "Japanese Mazu worship", "Islam in Japan", "Hinduism in Japan", "Christianity in Japan", "Bahá'í Faith in Japan", "religion in Ryukyu", "eclectic school", "kogaku", "Catholic Church in Japan" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 33 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 16 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one religion in Japan from another, and a religion in Japan from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a religion in Japan sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a religion in Japan from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a religion in Japan passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a religion in Japan between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a religion in Japan, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a religion in Japan is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a religion in Japan.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a religion in Japan and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a religion in Japan, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a religion in Japan and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a religion in Japan sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "legal-identity", "name": "Legal identity and mandate", "description": "What religion in Japan is in law and what it exists to do.", "rationale": "Legal identity survives changes of name, address, staff and premises, which is exactly why it must be recorded separately from all of them.", "layers": [ { "id": "registration", "name": "Legal form and registration", "description": "Form, register, identifiers and jurisdiction.", "findings": [ { "id": "registration-record", "name": "Registration and identifiers", "description": "What names this body unambiguously in law.", "questions": [ { "id": "registration-record-q01", "text": "What legal form does religion in Japan take, in which register, under which identifier?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "registration-record-q02", "text": "What survives a rename, a merger or a move of premises, and what does not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mandate", "name": "Mandate and governing instrument", "description": "The purpose it is bound to and the document that binds it.", "findings": [ { "id": "mandate-record", "name": "Mandate and its source", "description": "What it may do, and the instrument that says so.", "questions": [ { "id": "mandate-record-q01", "text": "What is the mandate of religion in Japan, and which founding or governing instrument grants it?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "mandate-record-q02", "text": "What lies outside the mandate, and what should an agent do when asked for it?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "governance-and-membership", "name": "Governance, membership and decision rights", "description": "Who decides in religion in Japan and who belongs to it.", "rationale": "Authority inside an organisation is held by roles, not people, and an agent needs to know which role can commit it.", "layers": [ { "id": "decision-rights", "name": "Decision rights", "description": "Bodies, offices and what each may bind.", "findings": [ { "id": "authority-map", "name": "Who may bind the organisation", "description": "The offices that can commit it and their limits.", "questions": [ { "id": "authority-map-q01", "text": "Which bodies or offices of religion in Japan may take which decisions, and up to what limit?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "authority-map-q02", "text": "What evidence shows that a given person currently holds that office?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "membership", "name": "Membership and affiliation", "description": "Who counts as part of it and on what terms.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-rules", "name": "Membership and its evidence", "description": "Classes of member, how membership starts and ends.", "questions": [ { "id": "membership-rules-q01", "text": "What kinds of membership or affiliation does religion in Japan have, and how does each begin and end?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "membership-rules-q02", "text": "What may a member do in its name, and what may they not?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a religion in Japan came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a religion in Japan and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a religion in Japan is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a religion in Japan, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a religion in Japan, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a religion in Japan is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }