A connection to support each other: Impact of Covid 19 pandemic on a volunteer-based Buddhist organisation in Tokyo

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed deeply rooted inequalities and disproportionally impacted existing precarious lives.

In this talk I will discuss the impact of crisis on religious organizations relying on volunteers. More specifically, I will focus on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the social welfare activities of a Buddhist organization in Tokyo, Hitosaji no Kai, initially established by Jōdo Shū Buddhist priests. Since 2009 Hitosaji no Kai has mainly operated in the San’ya district in Tokyo and it collaborates with local communities and NPOs in supporting people in need, both by providing food, medical advice and help with applications to welfare support schemes and by creating a connection between volunteers and people living in the area. 

In this talk I will analyse the role of the organisation’s flexibility of structure and grassroots connections in its responses to crisis by looking at daily activities of volunteers.

About the speaker 

Erica Baffelli is Professor of  Japanese Studies at The University of Manchester (UK). Her research interests lie in religion in contemporary Japan with a focus on religious minorities/marginalities, media, violence, emotions and temporalities. Her publications include:  Baffelli, Castiglioni and Rambelli eds. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Japanese Religions (2021); Baffelli, Caple, McLaughlin, Schröer eds. “The Aesthetics and Emotions of Religious Belonging: Examples from the Buddhist World”, Special Issue of Numen(2021);  (with Ian Reader) Dynamism and the Ageing of a Japanese 'New' Religion ( 2019); Media and New Religions in  Japan (2016).

Attending the event

This event is free and open to all. 

• Organiser: SOAS Centre for the Study of Japanese Religion and Centre of Buddhist Studies