Ioannis Gaitanidis
Biographic Data
| ID | 361840 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ioannis Gaitanidis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ioannis |
| FAMILY NAME | Gaitanidis |
| SIGNATURE | GAITANIDIS I |
| AFFILIATIONS | Chiba University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2164-6161 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Law and religion, in comparison: The co-making of two epistemic fields
This collection brings together seven contributions that examine the entangled co-makings of law and religion as they emerge from acts of comparison performed by legal and religious actors when existing knowledge frameworks fail them. Rather than focusing on their own comparisons between legal and religious contexts, the contributors analyse comparisons made by others, seeking to understand how such acts implicitly co-produce ‘law’ and ‘religion’…
Beyond the rational consumer: Religion, value, and legal comparison in Japanese consumer law
Consumer law rests on the assumption that consumers are rational agents capable of comparing products and services, free of other obligations. This contribution argues that, in the Japanese context, this assumption has been quietly shaped by encounters and comparisons with religious ideologies and practices deemed problematic. Drawing on David Graeber’s anthropological theory of value – which holds that the realisation of value always requires a …
Kakusareta Shōtoku Taishi: Kingendai Nihon no gishi to okaruto bunka (Shōtoku Taishi Veiled: Alternative Histories and Occulture in Modern Japan)
(Re)defining Esotericism: A Response from Two Scholars in Japan
The Co-constitution of Bad Religion and Unethical Sales: Fear at the Heart of Japan’s “Spiritual Sales”
Legal decisions surrounding activities associated with beliefs often described as “religious” usually conflate with laws and regulations that delineate other aspects of the context in which such activities occur. For example, transactions with psychics or fortune tellers usually need to abide by general consumer protection laws. In this article, I argue that controversies surrounding frauds and other troubles occurring during such transactions po…
Business Spirits: Religion and Business as Co-constitutive Phenomena
What are the co-making processes that blur the boundaries between religion and economy? How can we move past misleading metaphors and analogies that reify the false distinction between sacred and secular or that frame religion as pure essences corrupted by financialization? Inspired by McLaughlin et al.’s (2020) call for increased attention to the “corporate form of religion,” we outline how common social structural and aspirational elements unde…
How Consumer Law in Japan Shapes Religion: "Spiritual Sales" as a Legal Category
A core issue for media outlets and politicians since the assassination of Abe Shinzō has been monetary transactions between religious organizations and their current or former members. Anxieties surrounding religion's role in the public sphere have informed legal arguments about consumer issues. A category of fraud called "spiritual sales" has become a particular concern. In this article, I describe how interpretations of consumer law have been i…
Polarized agents of internationalization: An autoethnography of migrant faculty at a Japanese University
A “Nihilist Philosophy?”: Christian Orthodox Heretical Discourse and Japanese Buddhism in Greece
Contrary to other European countries, where Buddhism has been studied since at least the 19th century, this paper shows that there are no known direct channels of transmission of Japanese Buddhism between Japan and Greece. Connections have, however, been made through other European countries, where, for example, Italy continues to play a major role. Moreover, these transmissions have taken a very long time to spread beyond the immediate circle of…
Studying Abroad at Home: The Meaning of Education Abroad During the Pandemic
Studying abroad has virtually ended with the pandemic. New (online) formats are being already offered, but this has not stopped universities from having to revise curricula, renegotiate partnerships and consult with students about studying abroad in 2020 and beyond. This short essay stems from the author’s experience of cancelling his own Japanese study abroad program in late February 2020 to avoid the program participants taking unnecessary risk…
Spiritual Therapies in Japan
As the media-driven "spiritual boom" that hit Japan in the last decade starts to fade away, the therapies that this phenomenon popularized among fans of everything termed "spiritual" continue to be carried out in small circles of practitioners and their most fervent clients. This article places these "spiritual therapies" within the long history of healing rites in Japan by showing that their current appeal can be explained by two factors. First,…
At the forefront of a ‘spiritual business: Independent professional spiritual therapists in Japan
The current ‘spiritual boom’ represented by the phenomenal popularity of spiritual counsellor and television personality Ehara Hiroyuki provides evidence that the 1980s media-based religious boom in Japan did not come to an end in the aftermath of the terrorist act perpetrated by the new religious group Aum Shinrikyō. Today, however, the media focus seems increasingly to be falling on various therapies that have become objects of business transac…
At the forefront of a ‘spiritual business: Independent professional spiritual therapists in Japan
The current ‘spiritual boom’ represented by the phenomenal popularity of spiritual counsellor and television personality Ehara Hiroyuki provides evidence that the 1980s media-based religious boom in Japan did not come to an end in the aftermath of the terrorist act perpetrated by the new religious group Aum Shinrikyō. Today, however, the media focus seems increasingly to be falling on various therapies that have become objects of business transac…
At the forefront of a ‘spiritual business: Independent professional spiritual therapists in Japan
The current ‘spiritual boom’ represented by the phenomenal popularity of spiritual counsellor and television personality Ehara Hiroyuki provides evidence that the 1980s media-based religious boom in Japan did not come to an end in the aftermath of the terrorist act perpetrated by the new religious group Aum Shinrikyō. Today, however, the media focus seems increasingly to be falling on various therapies that have become objects of business transac…
Spiritual Therapies in Japan
As the media-driven "spiritual boom" that hit Japan in the last decade starts to fade away, the therapies that this phenomenon popularized among fans of everything termed "spiritual" continue to be carried out in small circles of practitioners and their most fervent clients. This article places these "spiritual therapies" within the long history of healing rites in Japan by showing that their current appeal can be explained by two factors. First,…
A “Nihilist Philosophy?”: Christian Orthodox Heretical Discourse and Japanese Buddhism in Greece
Contrary to other European countries, where Buddhism has been studied since at least the 19th century, this paper shows that there are no known direct channels of transmission of Japanese Buddhism between Japan and Greece. Connections have, however, been made through other European countries, where, for example, Italy continues to play a major role. Moreover, these transmissions have taken a very long time to spread beyond the immediate circle of…
Studying Abroad at Home: The Meaning of Education Abroad During the Pandemic
Studying abroad has virtually ended with the pandemic. New (online) formats are being already offered, but this has not stopped universities from having to revise curricula, renegotiate partnerships and consult with students about studying abroad in 2020 and beyond. This short essay stems from the author’s experience of cancelling his own Japanese study abroad program in late February 2020 to avoid the program participants taking unnecessary risk…
Polarized agents of internationalization: An autoethnography of migrant faculty at a Japanese University
(Re)defining Esotericism: A Response from Two Scholars in Japan
The Co-constitution of Bad Religion and Unethical Sales: Fear at the Heart of Japan’s “Spiritual Sales”
Legal decisions surrounding activities associated with beliefs often described as “religious” usually conflate with laws and regulations that delineate other aspects of the context in which such activities occur. For example, transactions with psychics or fortune tellers usually need to abide by general consumer protection laws. In this article, I argue that controversies surrounding frauds and other troubles occurring during such transactions po…
Business Spirits: Religion and Business as Co-constitutive Phenomena
What are the co-making processes that blur the boundaries between religion and economy? How can we move past misleading metaphors and analogies that reify the false distinction between sacred and secular or that frame religion as pure essences corrupted by financialization? Inspired by McLaughlin et al.’s (2020) call for increased attention to the “corporate form of religion,” we outline how common social structural and aspirational elements unde…
How Consumer Law in Japan Shapes Religion: "Spiritual Sales" as a Legal Category
A core issue for media outlets and politicians since the assassination of Abe Shinzō has been monetary transactions between religious organizations and their current or former members. Anxieties surrounding religion's role in the public sphere have informed legal arguments about consumer issues. A category of fraud called "spiritual sales" has become a particular concern. In this article, I describe how interpretations of consumer law have been i…
Kakusareta Shōtoku Taishi: Kingendai Nihon no gishi to okaruto bunka (Shōtoku Taishi Veiled: Alternative Histories and Occulture in Modern Japan)
Law and religion, in comparison: The co-making of two epistemic fields
This collection brings together seven contributions that examine the entangled co-makings of law and religion as they emerge from acts of comparison performed by legal and religious actors when existing knowledge frameworks fail them. Rather than focusing on their own comparisons between legal and religious contexts, the contributors analyse comparisons made by others, seeking to understand how such acts implicitly co-produce ‘law’ and ‘religion’…
Beyond the rational consumer: Religion, value, and legal comparison in Japanese consumer law
Consumer law rests on the assumption that consumers are rational agents capable of comparing products and services, free of other obligations. This contribution argues that, in the Japanese context, this assumption has been quietly shaped by encounters and comparisons with religious ideologies and practices deemed problematic. Drawing on David Graeber’s anthropological theory of value – which holds that the realisation of value always requires a …
Political science (7 works) · Sociology (6 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Business (4 works) · Japanese History and Culture (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Medicine (4 works) · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices (3 works) · Aesthetics (2 works) · Boom (2 works)