Japanese monks embrace material world to raise cash as donations shrink
Temple upkeep costs are soaring while Japan’s Buddhist population has dropped about 14 per cent in the last two decades
The move paid off. Within two years, his portfolio of US treasuries, Japanese real estate investment trusts and stocks including BYD and Hyundai Motor returned more than 10 per cent annually, helping to cover part of the roughly 25 million yen (US$160,000) in needed repairs. The extra money even allowed him to expand the renovations beyond the original plan.
Having previously worked in retail sales at Daiwa Securities Group, Yoneta is an unusually finance-savvy priest but is also part of a growing wave of temple owners turning to financial markets to make ends meet.
Costs for the upkeep of the ornate wooden buildings are soaring while the country’s Buddhist population has dropped about 14 per cent in the last two decades as elderly adherents die and younger generations in larger cities lose their ties to religious practices.
