
Japan’s Newest Technology Innovation: Priest Delivery - daegloe
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/business/international/amazon-japan-delivers-priest.html
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mverwijs
Is this the first step towards the Electric Monk then?

"Electric Monks believed things for you, thus saving you what was becoming an
increasingly onerous task, that of believing all the things the world expected
you to believe. " -Douglas Adams

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hkmurakami
I've personally been through several Buddhist funerals for my grandparents,
and can attest to this murky and opaque "business" practice of traditional
Buddhist temples. There are many additional "upkeep fees" that you're expected
to donate to your family temple for years (at least 7 years after death iirc).
As a westerner, I was quite befuddled.

But it's really a SaaS model of you think about it.

I really welcome the transparency this service will bring. Also, many people
move to Tokyo from other regions and really don't have the "family temple" to
turn to.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
> But it's really a SaaS model of you think about it.

Spirituality as a service?

~~~
virgulino
Soul.

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twblalock
The Buddhist temples ought to be embracing this. Many of them are running out
of money.

Frankly, Buddhism in Japan was run like a business since the 1600s, when the
government made every family register with a temple
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danka_system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danka_system)).
This led to the development of "funerary Buddhism," in which Buddhist temples
made most of their money providing funeral services and benefitted from
legally mandated customer loyalty. The temples survived primarily on funeral
income for a long time, and now that it's no longer legally required to
register with a temple, the temples are having a pretty hard time. Most of
them subsist mainly on tourism money and donations now.

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thatcat
it seems like the only recurring revenue they might receive comes from
publishing books

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mathrawka
If you have a family cemetery spot at the temple, you pay a yearly fee for it.

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steven777400
I understand the traditionalists hesitation (and fear). But it seems to me
this is actually a good thing from the Buddhist perspective; it's increasing
contact in an age of more secularism.

Customers like Mr. Kai in the article seem just as likely to simply not use a
priest at all, rather than figure out how to negotiate with the local temple
that they have no roots in, if the "on-demand" service was not available.

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frozenport
On the other hand Mr. Kai gave some portly dude 50 bucks to dance around his
living room. Without community and roots, religion is a scam.

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scoot
Religion is a scam in either case, so why not streamline it?

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toasterlovin
Sure, most of humanity participates in a religion of some kind, but they're
all just fools getting taken in a con. I get that there are some well
established problems that come up in conjunction with religion, but perhaps
there's a little bit more to it than that, no?

~~~
kbart
Big (if not major) part of humanity are used to some kind of drugs too
(alcohol, tobacco, sugar, coffee etc.), but we don't say there's something
more to it. Religion is a drug for one's mind to make feel better and ease
existential pain/uncertainty.

~~~
gerbilly
>Religion is a drug for one's mind to make feel better and ease existential
pain/uncertainty.

Well if that's the case then Buddhism is pretty bad at it. It teaches that you
have no self even when you are alive, much less after death.

It also does not promise reincarnation either, but rebirth, which is kind of
an impersonal process.

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CivilianZero
Maybe let's not talk about Buddhism like we all know what it's really like as
a religion. It IS a religion and there is much more to it than the average
person seems to think.

Granted, like any belief system people are free to pick and choose if they
want, but we don't base our judgement of a belief system's "religiousness" on
people who have chosen the very least amount.

~~~
gerbilly
> Maybe let's not talk about Buddhism like we all know what it's really like
> as a religion.[1]

Oh really, and why not?

Maybe some of us do know what it's like...

One could argue that "the very least amount" correlates roughly with Theravada
buddhism which bases its practices on a set of very early talks given by the
buddha that are believed to be the core teachings.

There are a _lot_ of theravada buddhists in the world, so you could say that
many have chosen "the least amount".

Why do you come to HN if not to discuss things? Should we exchange credentials
before being allowed to discuss things?

[1] [http://i0.kym-
cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/582/861/e26...](http://i0.kym-
cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/582/861/e26.jpg)

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tetraodonpuffer
tangentially related, I saw the 2008 Japanese movie "Departures" recently and
it was quite fascinating to see the funeral rites and general attitudes
towards it, very interesting movie if you happen to catch it

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1069238/)

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goberoi
Direct link to the detail page on Amazon (taken from the article):
[https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B018HVTR2U](https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B018HVTR2U)

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M_Grey
So it's like... Bonze Uber? 1-800-DIAL-A-BONZE... if it were shipboard it
would be... umibozu, no wait, that's a very different entity entirely.

Jokes aside though, this makes a lot of sense. I would guess that in a busy
urban life, religion probably gets the "no time today" treatment. The ability
to get a house call, on that basis alone, seems like a smart model to follow.
When you add in the problem of Japan's elderly and young shut-in population,
maybe it even makes more sense.

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TorKlingberg
It's interesting that the middleman taking 30 percent is a constant across
countries and products.

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partycoder
I think there was an actual church inside the Second Life MMO.

~~~
205guy
Quite likely. I knew of a shamanism-based group that had conversational and
spiritual meetings within second life.

~~~
plinkplonk
Many 'occult' groups met in Second Life, some charging money for attendance.

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visarga
Classic Japanese weird.

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Panoramix
'Japanese weird' is nothing but confirmation bias. Because you only hear about
the outliers, stories strange enough to make their way all through the ocean.
There are myriads of ultra-bizarre things happening around you, but most
likely you view them as isolated events and don't have a label for them.
Whereas you do have one label for Japan, and whenever you encounter something
unusual you confirm this bias - while ignoring other things. Next time ask
yourself questions such as: is this commonplace in that country? is this
considered unusual by the locals as well? is this considered normal in
cultures other than mine?

Most likely the journalist will not answer these for you - bad journalists
often rely on stereotypes and biases to appeal to your feelings of shock.

