Reconsidering the concept of theodicy in the context of the post-2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami

Has the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake given rise to theodicy in Japan? This question would puzzle many scholars of religion for two major reasons. First, theodicy has generally been regarded as an outdated concept, and it is rare to see a lively discussion of it in today's academia except for in theology. Second, typical theodicean questions are unlikely to be asked publicly in Japan, where less than 2 percent of the population follow monotheistic traditions. Despite these assumptions, this article not only reports that ‘apparently’ theodicean public discourses have emerged since the 11 March earthquake, but also attempts to employ the typology of theodicy to analyze them in a thought-provoking and critical manner. It argues that the post-3/11 Japanese voices, which regard the disaster as a divine punishment, use a reverse logic of traditional Western theodicy. Rather than signaling a sudden turn to monotheism, the voices are inclined to imply nativism.