As one of the principal participants in the effort to pursue research on religion and gender in Japan, I will perform a survey of problems for religious studies in Japan that are clarified by gender-critical turns. I will then point out a number of directions that could be taken to redress these problems. This is no simple project, and I will approach it by means of the theoretical texts of two trailblazers in feminist studies in religion, Ursula King (Professor Emerita, University of Bristol)

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... nd Morny Joy (Professor, University of Calgary). I have engaged in exchanges with them for many years, and I will contextualize the importance of their theoretical texts for this project in Japan. I would like to emphasize here that even though they may differ in their motivations and methods, religion and feminism share a goal. That is, to realize a justice that affirms, for all women, the integrity of their very existence. It appears, however, that this realization is going to take more time yet not least in Japan.