Temples in Japan partially digitize New Year's rituals

Many temples in Japan have begun implementing Paypay online payment as a simple option, alongside the traditional "coin toss".

Zojoji is one of the largest Buddhist temples in Tokyo, Japan. (Source: Japan-guide)

Zojoji Temple in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the first temples in the country to begin digitizing its New Year's ceremonies, by encouraging visitors to use QR code scanning instead of the traditional "coin tossing".

Japan has begun its New Year holiday - a time when many people visit large places of worship such as temples and pagodas to visit and pray for a peaceful new year.

According to traditional customs, when visiting the above locations, Japanese people often bring small denomination coins to perform the "coin tossing" ritual (called Saisen in Japanese, which has the same meaning as donating a little incense money to the temple) before clasping their hands to pray. This amount will be collected by the temple to use for common activities.

In the trend of digitizing daily activities, since the end of December, Zojoji Temple has started implementing Paypay online payment as a simple option, parallel to the traditional "coin tossing" method.

The motivation for the temple to decide to digitize this activity is to help tourists, especially young tourists who prefer online payment, to have more convenience when visiting the temple, while reducing the temple's effort in collecting and sending coins to credit institutions, contributing to promoting the movement to reduce cash payments in the Northeast Asian country.

Visitors scan QR codes to pay for the “coin tossing” ritual at Zojoji Temple. (Source: Japan News)

According to Takechi Kimihide, the abbot of Zojoji Temple, Saisen is meant to train people to abandon greed, anger and delusion, and online payment does not diminish this meaning. More and more domestic and foreign tourists visit the temple without coins and are using online payment methods, so the demand for cashless Saisen will increase in the future.

Zojoji Temple is one of the largest Buddhist temples in Tokyo, hundreds of years old. Not only famous for its long history, the temple is also known for its sophisticated architecture and events related to the famous Tokugawa Clan. Every year, Zojoji Temple holds a large-scale New Year's event to pray for national peace and prosperity, so this is one of the places with the highest number of visitors to the temple at the beginning of the year in the capital of Japan.

According to Paypay's representative, in addition to Zojoji Temple, the digital Saisen service is also introduced at 7 religious facilities across the country, such as Inage Temple in Kawasaki City, Higashibetsuin Temple in Nagoya City, etc.

Similarly, Mizuho Bank also started implementing the J-Coin pay payment service at about 80 places of worship nationwide at the beginning of the new year, and is expected to expand further in 2025.