As a result of periodic repression of religion by various dictators (Guest, 2003), survey data of religious belief in the most populated country in the world – China -is extremely unreliable (Demerath, 2001: 154). Only very recently has sound scholarship begun to emerge, and even that is of limited scope (Yang, 2004). Estimates of high degrees of atheism in China are most likely gross over-exaggerations (Overmyer, 2003). That said, according to Barrett et al (2001), 8% of the Chinese are atheist. According to Marshall (2000), 10% of those in China identify as “atheist.” According to Johnstone (1993), 59% of those in China are nonreligious. According to O’Brien and Palmer (1993), between 10-14% of those in China are “avowed atheists.”
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According to Norris and Inglehart (2004), 65% of those in Japan do not believe in God. According to Demerath (2001: 138 ), 64% do not believe in God and 55% do not believe in Buddha, however a very strong majority have engaged in some form or Shinto, Buddhist, or Japanese folk/cultural ritual, such visiting a shrine or temple on the previous New Year’s Day. According to the 1999 Gallup International Poll, nearly 29% of the Japanese chose “none” as their religion. According to Johnstone (1993: 323), 84% of the Japanese claim no personal religion, but most follow “the customs of Japanese traditional religion.”
http://www.pitzer.edu/academics/facu...n/atheism.html
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