Linked to emperor, Ise Shrine is no ordinary shrine

Shinto as political ideology goes back to the Meiji period and predates the militarist-friendly governments of the Showa period.

"living god" is not an accurate translation of 現人神.

Could you imagine how much good that $500 million could do helping the less fortunate! What a supreme waste of money! And they said that some of the money came from the Royal family, but don't our taxes pay for them? I really like this Emperor, but hearing this kind of stuff almost makes me change my mind.

@MarkX Same thing everywhere. Huge churches and cathedrals all over Europe and the US. Could have used that money to help less fortunate. Now they build the size of football stadiums. But they could have used that money to help the poor. What to keep in mind about the current emperor is how he has stood against and rebuked Abe's historical revisionism. Yes, the tax for the Imperial Household Agency is equivalent to about 17 yen per person per year.

I understand what you mean, but at least they don't rip down the churches and rebuild them every 20 years! And like I said, I do like this Emperor, and maybe this has nothing to do with him, and it is the gov't promoting it, but I still don't like the idea.

Abe, who has sought to restore traditional Japanese values

Shinzo heads the 神道政治連盟国会議員懇談会 (Shintou seiji renmei kokkai giin kondankai ­– Shinto Political Alliance Diet Member’s Roundtable)

This group is dedicated to “restoring Japanese-ness” by promoting Shinto values. They oppose female imperial succession, promote official visits by prime ministers to Yasukuni Shrine, and oppose the construction of a non-religious site of war commemoration and the ‘removal’ of the spirits of war criminals from Yasukuni, push for constitutional revision and patriotic and moral education, oppose free trade of agricultural products because of what they describe as traditional ties between rice cultivation and Shinto, oppose giving permanent residents the right to vote in local elections and the sale of forest land, water resources, or ‘important property’ to foreigners, and oppose separate family names for married couples and “gender free education” which they see as examples of support for equality between the sexes gone too far.

http://apjjf.org/-Matthew-Penney/4747/article.html

Of course, this isn't "restoring Japaneseness" - it's restoring a fantasy vision of Japan that never existed, filtered through the fascist / imperialist version of history beloved of dictatorial elitist ideologues like Shinzo and his backers.

"living god" is not an accurate translation of 現人神.

It's the standard translation of the term. I'm not sure what would be better. 'God on earth' maybe? 'Real god'? What do you think would be a better translation?

The three kanji explanation is not used by Japanese people. Real word in kana is IKIGAMI same. When I was in elementary school, we had to stop telling anyone who use toilet is not a god. Yamaguchi ken people who rebelled against shogun created reason as they will be restoring living god too get other area samurai forces to join rebels. So, Yamaguchi ken people think emperor is just puppet, not living God.

I understand what you mean, but at least they don't rip down the churches and rebuild them every 20 years!

The buildings are constructed from untreated and unpainted wood. After being exposed to twenty years of high humidity and typhoons, they are basically falling apart when reconstructed.

"Ise Shrine is rebuilt every 20 years, a process of moving a deity to a new shrine. It was most recently rebuilt in 2013, the 62nd time since the first rebuilding in 690. The 55 billion yen ($500 million) cost, which included the wood of 10,000 cypress trees for new buildings, was covered by the shrine and private donations, including from business leaders and members of the royal family. The rebuilding involves 30 rituals spanning at least eight years. "

How on earth is this not a national scandal, 500MILLION USD i spat coffee all over the place just from reading it.

How on earth is this not a national scandal,

Two words: "private donations."