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Current global shifts in education towards inclusive early childhood education are deeply engineered by the crisis of educational exclusion. In responding to exclusion, teachers have mainly utilized dominant western theories to plan and implement inclusive teaching. In this chapter, we draw on a non-western philosophy, a Nichiren Buddhist (Soka) philosophy, to provide a ‘kaleidoscopic’ lens through which to create inclusive educational learning spaces that engender full participation of all children. The Soka education philosophy is a humanist concept which can guide teachers when preparing to create inclusive education. The aims of this chapter are threefold: The first is an exploration of the Nichiren Buddhist (Soka) philosophy. The second aim is to highlight how this philosophy can enable teachers to unleash the unlimited potential of children in inclusive learning settings. Thirdly, we argue that grounding early childhood teacher education in this philosophy can help improve the effectiveness of inclusive educational experience for all children.

A survey of Japan's new religions (1) shows “ancestor worship” (2) to have played an important part in various religious bodies (3), as a means for attaining happiness for the living. Generally speaking, new religions advocate that the adequate veneration of ancestors leads them to enter a “blissful state”, as a result of which they can bring happiness to their living descendants (4). At the same time, the new religions also teach that lack of proper consolation for ancestors results in misfortune for the living (5). This tendency to put importance on ancestor worship is a particular feature of the Reiyu‐kai group of new religions which denotes those religious bodies which were established by schism within Reiyu‐kai (lit. the Spirit Friends' Society) and by the subsequent re‐splitting of those bodies (6) which resulted. The parent organization, Reiyu‐kai, is a large‐scale new religion of lay Nichiren origin (7), which was founded by Kakutaro Kubo and Kimi Kotani in 1925, and its doctrine of memorial rites for ancestors, concentrating on the combination of ancestor worship and faith as found in the Lotus Sutra, draws upon that of the Bussho Gonen movement founded by Toshizo Nishida (8).

This chapter critically explores the colonial model of education in a Buddhist society in postcolonial Bangladesh, as the Buddhist value-based contemplative learning and ethical practices have been constantly challenged due to the fact that the western value-based cultural knowledge is considered for economic development. In such a context, Buddhist learners are unable to learn the social history, cultural heritage, Buddhist/social economy, and spiritual values and practices in the educational institutions. Even teachers are not trained in preparing learners for cultivation of wisdom (Paññā in Pāli) and ecocentric development of the community in the country. On the other hand, Buddhist notion of contemplative learning pedagogy believes in decolonization of the mind and reflective practice for social transformation and development of wisdom through deep meditative mind by nurturing critical dialogue as opposed to capital accumulation and greed-based society. The Buddhist pedagogical approach focuses on mindful concentration (bhavana) and ethical (sila) practice within the learning context and environment, as emancipatory ideology to promote cultural diversity instead of political and social imposition. Such mindfulness would allow both the learners and teachers to create collaborative learning opportunities for life-sustaining practice and wholesome (kusala karma) activity in the community setting. The Buddhist learning pedagogy tends to nurture nonviolence (ahimsa) in order to develop mutual respect among the diverse communities to renewing ground for mind-expanding pursuits in the learning institutions for the wellbeing of all community members in the country.

This paper analyses how the history of the Mongol invasions of Japan in the 13th century was used to create a collective national memory of modern Japan and how individuals and the Japanese public promoted these memories through a campaign of constructing memorials to strengthen Japan's unified national consciousness in times of national crisis.

The main research material is derived from Japanese newspaper archives, National Diet library database as well as Japanese and English secondary literature.

This paper argues that three Japanese concepts, such as kokunan (national crisis), kokui (national prestige or pride) and gokoku (protecting the country), were essential for the creation of collective Japanese memory and identity.

The paper outlines the narrative formed around the history of the Mongol invasions of Japan to create a unified national identity through a collective historical memory in times of Japanese “national crisis” felt in its external relations.

This paper aims to examine how social comparison (SC) and belief in karma (KA) encourage materialism (MAT) and promote consumers’ life satisfaction (LS).

Two studies were conducted with Indian middle class consumers to test the basic premises of the current research. The first one used a survey (N = 247), while the second one used an experimental design (N = 206).

The survey results showed that SC and belief in KA promoted MAT amongst Indian consumers and further enhanced their LS. Findings from the experiment revealed a novel two-way interaction, in that the KA–MAT relationship was moderated by the underlying motivation for MAT.

Future research may validate and extend our findings using different samples to increase external validity.

By explaining the interactive effects of MAT, its underlying motivation and belief in KA, managers will gain a better understanding of why consumers in an emerging market like India purchase conspicuous products.

This is the first paper to study how the KA–MAT relationship influences LS amongst consumers in the world’s fastest-rising economy. Furthermore, no prior research has reported a boundary condition for the KA–MAT relationship studied here. The findings contribute to an extremely limited body of literature on KA and consumption.

The purpose of this paper is to arrive at an understanding of how Japan allowed herself to become involved in a conflict with such tragic proportions, for both Japan and others, as the Second World War.

In a reconstruction, a series of similarities in widespread, local occurrences within the Japanese authority structure that produced larger‐scale reactions, events that could neither undo nor even attenuate the triggering incidents, are described.

The “triggers” occurred almost entirely at the tactical level, ignited by small groups or individuals ignorant of implications higher in the hierarchy of possible outcomes. Emphasized is the causative factor of formalized insubordination, or gekokujô.

The thrust of the paper is to interpret exactly how Japan's lost war against China and the Western Allies began. There may be lessons in this analysis for institutions and organizations outside the military sphere when contemplating new initiatives, especially major departures.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the notion of “service transgression” which violates customers’ religious beliefs through observing certain dietary guidelines that shape their religious identity. While service transgression and customer forgiveness are predominantly examined using experimental procedures or questionnaire survey in existing studies, this study adopts an interpretive paradigm to explore the complexities and idiosyncratic narratives of individual perceptions.

Detailed narrative accounts of 15 participants consisting of five Muslims, five Buddhists and five Hindus; who are working adults residing in Malaysia were gathered via in-depth interviews. Critical incident technique was employed with interpretive approach being undertaken to uncover key themes that form the essence of experiences in service transgressions.

The responses from participants were mainly contingent to the individuals’ interpretations of their religious expectations in the assessment of the incidents. Observations from the interview protocols reveal common themes in the consideration of whether one has indeed transgressed against the religious norms, the assignment of blame and responsibility and reparation of relationships. From the findings of this study, the authors developed a typology of conflict framing categories: “damaged identity”, “identity at risk” and “identity preservation” by considering both dyadic and triadic service relationships in service failure incidents which involve a violation of customers’ religious belief systems.

The outcome of this study seeks to inform service providers on the impact of service transgression of this nature upon consumers particularly in a multi-faith society. Additionally, this study provides insights into the implementation of service recovery strategies if and when such situation arises.

By undertaking a narrative enquiry, this study uncovers personal sense making in this phenomenon within the contextual frame of societal and historical norms. The outcome of this study provides insights to service providers on the impact of service transgression upon consumers particularly in a multi-faith context such as Malaysia. Additionally, this study discusses managerial implications associated with the implementation of service recovery strategies if and when such situation arises.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of religion, morality and mindset in influencing perceptions of luxury products.

The study uses three experimental studies to investigate this relationship.

Study 1 shows that religiosity influences negative moral emotions (but not positive moral emotions), which then negatively influence luxury consumption and morality evaluations. Study 2 replicates the effects of Study 1 and shows that priming a moral (marketplace) mindset decreases negative moral emotions and increases luxury consumption evaluations for highly (less) religious consumers. Study 3 explains the effects found in Studies 1 and 2 as driven by moral licensing, such that priming a moral (marketplace) mindset decreases (increases) the negative moral emotions experienced by those primed (not primed) with religiosity. Study 3 also improves the external validity of findings by including a social media sample of regular luxury purchases. Implications for theory and marketing practice are discussed.

The present research is limited by samples conducted in Western culture with a predominantly Western, Christian religious audience. Future research should examine how moral vs marketplace mindsets differentially influence the consumption of luxury products for Eastern religious consumers (e.g. Hindus, Buddhists and Confucianists). Additionally, this research was conducted using Allport and Ross’ (1967) religiosity measure. Some could argue that the measure is not the most representative for atheists or agnostics or is outdated, so further research would benefit from replicating and extending the findings in this paper with other, newer religiosity measures better adapted to measure all belief systems.

Marketers of luxury products should realize the potential of a new target audience – religious consumers. While religiosity is positively correlated with negative moral emotions toward luxury products in Study 1, Studies 2 and 3 reveal that priming a moral mindset can reduce negative affect and increase evaluations of luxury products. Thus, marketers could seek out ways to emphasize morality in messaging. For example, a marketer may incorporate words such as virtues, ethics and/or noble, when describing attributes of their brand in advertising, thereby resulting in a moral licensing effect. Research suggests advertising content has the potential to influence consumers’ perceived moral obligation, inclusive of the moral or immoral nature of the consumption of luxury brands.

While the link between religion and luxury goods is evident in popular culture, previous research has yet to empirically explore this relationship. This study fills this gap by investigating the role of religiosity on the perceived morality and ultimately the purchase of luxury branded goods.

This paper aims to offer a systematic view of religious consumption and its iterative influences on consumers, as well as their differences in attitudes, values and behaviors.

Using a mixed-method approach – both qualitative and quantitative – the study develops religious self-transformation and self-categorization scales to empirically evaluate the hypotheses.

The convergence of consumption, self-identification and religious attitudes and behaviors proffer an essentially subjective concept useful in understanding the existential reflection and supernatural orientation that individuals may seek through consumption. Cluster analysis (based on product, services, media and practices) reveals four quadrants. The non-religious (religious) group has low (high) consumption in all four consumption categories Self-categorization (self-transformation) group has high (low) level of product consumption, but low (high) in all three other categories. This research presented four invisible identities that are visibly different in terms of life satisfaction, religious brand preference, dollars spending on religious products and monetary donation.

This research only considers one medium-size city as opposed to all types of cities. All religious affiliated and nonaffiliated respondents are included in the total sample.

The study offers new insights into the triadic relationship between religious self-identification, religious consumption, and the marketplace that can be used in branding, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and persuasive advertising, public relation and social media, and services marketing.

Religion addresses the nature of existence. In this religion–consumer–brand nexus, consumption is a way for consumers to experience and immense themselves in the sacred to solidify, communicate, transform, improve and transport who they are capitalizing on religious self-identification can affectively promote positive social change.

This work proposes four invisible identities that are different in consumption of religious products and services in terms of patterns and purposes. These groups of consumers shape the marketplace through the derived utility of their religious consumption based on their self-identification, which in turn influences their religious brand preference.