Amazon’s rent-a-Buddhist-monk

I have heard of rent-a-boyfriend/girlfriend/friend service. But “rent-a-Buddhist-monk-service”? What is that?

My deceased grandfather often contacted local Buddhist temple to have a monk come out to his house to pray for his past brother. But now, you can actually go online to find a Buddhist monk to do funerals and other rituals.

Amazon Japan has providers that offer rent-a-Buddhist-monk services and when that happened, Buddhist organizations started to complain the newest trend.

So how is this latest trend affecting Japan’s 75,000 temples and shrines?

Well, they are losing business obviously. We used to just rely on local temple for services and instead of going to them, we now look for monks on Amazon. “Such a thing is allowed in no other country in the world. In this regard, we must say we are disappointed by an attitude toward religion by Amazon,” Akisato Saito, director of the Japan Buddhist Association says.

But this may be the beginning of a new era for Buddhism in Japan? What are your thoughts?