Professor Mark Mullins

Professor

In: Asian Studies » Cultures, Languages and Linguistics » Faculty of Arts

Professor

In: Theological and Religious Studies » Humanities » Faculty of Arts

Biography

Mark R Mullins joined the University of Auckland as Professor of Japanese Studies in January 2013. Prior to this appointment, he was engaged in academic work in Japan for 27 years and taught at Shikoku Gakuin University, Meiji Gakuin University, and Sophia University, where he also served a three-year term as editor of Monumenta Nipponica. He completed his postgraduate studies in the sociology of religion and East Asian traditions at McMaster University (PhD 1985). His teaching and research focus is on the role of Japanese religions in modern societies both within and outside of Japan.

Research | Current

Sociology of religion
Japanese religions and society
Christianity in Japan and East Asia
New religious movements
Religion-state issues in modern Japan

My current research is focused on two projects. One is concerned with neo-nationalism and religion in contemporary Japanese society and considers the social conflict and debate surrounding Yasukuni Shrine, proposals to revise the Constitution, and patriotic education. The second is as a collaborator for a three-year (2014-2016) project on the treatment of religion during the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) through a re-examination of archive materials outside of Japan. This team project is under the direction of Professor Tsuyoshi Nakano and funded by a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grant in Aid.

Teaching | Current

JAPANESE 308 Religion in Modern Japanese Society

ASIAN 702 Approaches to Research in Asian Studies

ASIAN 753 Transnational North-East Asia: Challenges and Possibilities

Postgraduate supervision

Supervision is available for postgraduate students interested in research on religion in modern Japanese society, including such topics as the sociology of new religious movements, the cross-cultural diffusion of Japanese religions, Japanese Christianity, and religion and state issues.

Distinctions/Honours

2019 Awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, by the Japanese Government in recognition for his contribution to the development of the sociology of religion in Japan, research on Japan in New Zealand, and promotion of academic exchanges and mutual understanding between Japan and New Zealand.

2016 Awarded Foreign Minister's Commendation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for contribution to and promotion of Japan-related research in New Zealand.

2005 Awarded 21st Joseph Roggendorf Book Award for the Japanese edition of Christianity Made in Japan: A Study of Indigenous Movements (University of Hawaii Press, 1998), published by Transview Press in Tokyo.

Responsibilities

Director, Japan Studies Centre, New Zealand Asia Institute

Undergraduate Advisor, Asian Studies Programme

Areas of expertise

Sociology of Religion, Japanese religions and society, Christianity in Japan and East Asia, New Religious Movements, Religion-State Issues in Modern Japan

Committees/Professional groups/Services

2019 - Executive Council Member, East Asian Society for the Scientific Study of Religion

2018 - President, New Zealand Association for the Study of Religions

2017- Member of the Editorial Board, Asian Journal of Religion and Society, Korean Association for the Sociology of Religion

2017- Vice-President, New Zealand Association for the Study of Religions

2016- Editor, Book Series: Religion and Society in Asia Pacific (Palgrave Macmillan)

2016- Member of the Editorial Board, International Journal of Asian Christianity (Brill)

2013- Member of Advisory Board, Monumenta Nipponica (Sophia University)

2010-2012 Editor, Monumenta Nipponica: Studies in Japanese Culture (Sophia University)

1991 and 2007 Guest Co-editor, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies

2004-2009 Associate Editor, Japanese Religions

1993-2005 Editorial Advisor, Echoes of Peace: Quarterly Bulletin of the Niwano Peace Foundation

2004-2016 Board Member, Japanese Association for Religious Studies

Selected publications and creative works (Research Outputs)

Mullins, M. R. (2017). Shinsaigo no Nihon ni okeru neo-nashonarizumu [Neo-nationalism in post-disaster Japan]. In H. Tsukada (Ed.) 徹底検証日本の右傾化=Tettei Kenshō: Nihon no ukeika (pp. 128-147). Tokyo: Chikumashobō.
Mullins, M. R. (2017). Religion in occupied Japan: The impact of SCAP’s policies on Shinto. In E. Anderson (Ed.) Belief and practice in imperial Japan and colonial Korea (pp. 229-248). Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mullins, M. R. (2016). Neonationalism, politics, and religion in post-disaster Japan. In M. R. Mullins, K. Nakano (Eds.) Disasters and social crisis in contemporary Japan: Political, religious, and sociocultural responses (pp. 107-131). Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1057/9781137521323_6
Mullins, M. R. (Ed.) (2015). Critical Readings on Christianity in Japan. Leiden: EJ Brill. Pages: 1430.
Mullins, M. R. (2015). Japanese responses to imperialist secularization: The postwar movement to restore Shintō in the public sphere. In M. Burchardt, M. Wohlrab-Sahr, M. Middell (Eds.) Multiple secularities beyond the west: Religion and modernity in the global age (pp. 141-167). Berlin, Germany: Walter De Gruyter Inc.
Mullins, M. R. (2014). Kagawa Toyohiko (1888-1960) and the Japanese Christian impact on American society. In A. L. Park, D. K. Yoo (Eds.) Encountering modernity : Christianity in East Asia and Asian America (pp. 162-193). Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press.
Mullins, M. R. (2013). Sacred Sites and Social Conflict: Yasukuni Shrine and Religious Pluralism in Japanese Society. Religious Pluralism, State and Society in Asia (pp. 35-50). New York: Routledge.
Mullins, M. R. (2012). Christianity in Contemporary Japanese Society. In I. Prohl, J. Nelson (Eds.) Handbook of Contemporary Japanese Religions (pp. 133-157). Leiden: Brill.