This article investigated the processes of construction of discourses about the
existence of spirit possession and possessing entities in Japan and Italy. In doing so, while providing empirical data, it confirmed the anthropological analytic that interprets spirits as related to resistance to processes of modernization that tend to rationalize and marginalize them. This happened both in the case of early twentieth Century Japan and in the case of the Second Vatican Council.
Nevertheless, in the first instance, this study also showed that discourses are negotiated in the interactions among a variety of actors, that include state apparatuses and their modernizing strategies, but also intellectuals, religious groups and practitioners, as well as transnational flows of images and ideologies.
According to these interactions, discourses about modernity can be re-negotiated and balances of power can shift. With changes in discourses of spirits and spirit possession, some groups can access new ways of empowerment, as in the case of the film The Exorcist and Catholic exorcists, or spirituality related groups in 1970s Japan. Thus, so long as the possibility of existence of possessing entities is acknowledged to a certain extent, spirits do not only “resist”: they also have an active, creative political role. They can move and mediate politics, negotiate processes of modernization, as well as categories of “religion” and “superstition”.
On the one hand, therefore, a focus on the “politics of spirits” can offer a new ground for an understanding of the complexity and multidimensionality of spirit possession form a cross-cultural perspective. On the other hand, though, thinking that national politics of spirits are negotiated in localities through different practices is legitimate. Therefore further investigation on the processes through which experiences of possession are constructed through practice, can offer new insights not only on the interrelatedness of religion,
spirituality, politics and globalization, but also on the ways in which they shape, and are shaped by, bodily perceptions and realities of spirits.
Acknowledgements: I am deeply grateful to Dr. Giorgio Fabio Colombo
（Nagoya University）and Marlies Möderndorfer（the University of Vienna）for their precious insights, comments and suggestions, that greatly contributed to improve this article.
Notes
１） In 2015 the “X Course on Exorcism and Prayers of Liberation” will be held from the 13th to the 18th of April. According to the Courseʼs homepage, “this annual Course on Exorcism seeks to explore the theoretical and practical implications of the ministry of exorcism” and it will take into consideration aspects of exorcism from the viewpoint of several disciplines, including anthropological, phenomenological, social, theological, liturgical, spiritual, medical, neuroscientific and physical, symbolic, criminological, legal, and juridical aspects（Sacerdos 2015）.
２） Works by Screech（2002）and Vande Walle and Kasaya（2001）showed that ideas about natural history and science entered Japan much earlier, in the late 1700s, through the importation of European knowledge and so called Dutch-studies（rangaku）. Nevertheless, as Foster（2009）points out, it was not until the Meiji period that taken-for-granted assumptions about the world were rethought.
３） On religious conflict in this period and haibutsu kishaku, see for instance Ketelar（1993）
and Thelle（1987）.
４） Biographical data about Inoue Enryō can be found, among others, in Figal（1999）, Foster
（2009）, Josephson（2006, 2012）, Kikuchi（2013）, Staggs（1983）. This section is heavily indebted to these works.
５） English translations of this name are discordant, due to the wide semantic field of the word fushigi. They include “Paranormal Research Society”（Josephson 2006: 151）,
“Strangeness Research Group”（Yoshinaga 2015: 88）, or “Mystery Research Society”
（Figal 1999: 44, Foster 2009: 79）. I agree with this last translation because, one the one hand, even though it is true that the society was modeled on the British Society for Psychical Research（Figal 2009: 44）, the idea of “paranormal” was not present in Japan at the time and it is too narrow to be superimposed to “fushigi”. On the other hand, I
think that the idea of “mysterious” or “mystery” is a better rendition than “strange” or
“strangeness” in this case. For a discussion about the translation of “fushigi”, see Foster
（2009: 15-21）.
６） In the present article, I used the 2000 edition of the complete collection of Inoueʼs writings. All translations are mine, if not otherwise specified.
７） These intellectuals included, among others, names such as Kiyozawa Manshi, Inoue Tetsujirō, Ōuchi Seiran, Sakaino Kōyō, Katō Genchi, Hirai Kinzō, Unshō, Ōya Tokujō and Katō Totsudō（Josephson 2006: 163）.
８） I prefer the translation “spirit” to “soul”, for the latter is heavily related to Christian tradition.
９） For a history of the “occult boom” in Japan see Ichiyanagi 2006.
10） Both are quotations from the very popular fashion magazine for female teenager Seventeen, respectively the 06/09/1974 and 08/13/1974 issues. The second quotation is particularly interesting in my view, because it shows a shift between the demonic possession portrayed in the film and the possession by an “evil spirit”（akurei）, that was more familiar to the Japanese context, as I explained above.
11） On the theological grounds on which the DESQ is based, see Hauke 2006.
12） In this case, I quoted from an official Catholic website in English, since the English version of the De Exorcismis et Supplicationibus Quibusdam is not available.
Therefore, the following quotations from the text are based on the Italian version, Rito degli esorcismi e preghiere per circostanze particolari（2001）available online and translated by the author.
13） Amorth does not clarify what the “effectiveness” of prayers is based on. All the exorcists I interviewed, though, agreed with Amorth on this point and claimed that this is the result of having deleted prayers that ordered the devil to leave the body, substituting them with their supplicant form（see also Hauke 2006: 65）.
14） This is my translation from the Italian version, to which Amorth refers. Yet, curiously enough, the English translation is slightly different and gives a narrower interpretation of exorcism, as “directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession”（CCC 1997: 1673）.
15） For instance, Amorth claimed that “Oriental practices, such as yoga, are deceitful and dangerous. One thinks to perform them for relaxing purposes, but they lead to Hinduism. All Oriental religions are based on the false belief in reincarnation”, that Halloween “is singing Hosanna to the devil”, and that Harry Potter “leads to magic and, hence, to evil. Also in Harry Potter the demon acted in a hidden and sly way, disguised as extraordinary powers, magic and curses”（Il Fatto Quotidiano 2001.11.24）.
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