Update: ShintoUpsurge? Let's Hope Richard Halloran Is Not a False Witness

Visitors to major Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in 2007 during the Three New Year Days reached what appears to be an all-time high of 93.73 million. Attendance dipping below 80 million with the best of weather at the peak of the bubble economy years, the faithful are returning to the flock (at least for Oshogatsu) to the consternation of irreligious and/or proselytizing Japan-watchers around the world.

Of course there is always the possibility that the National Police, who are responsible for these statistics, are lying to us. And, as in the case of global warming, a sudden winter chill, sleet or rain, if not gloom of night, in 2008 could easily give fleeting heart to naysayers of the Great Awakening that Richard Halloran gives witness to.