Part of a special section on Buddhist Chaplaincy in the United States and Japan.
Editors’ note: Rev. HIRANO Shunkō has served as a prison chaplain among death row inmates at Tokyo Detention House for more than forty years. He is a priest of the Jōdo Shinshū Honganji sect and the former abbot of Chūgenji temple in Ichikawa, Chiba. He is also the former chairperson of the National Prison Chaplain’s Union of Japan. While prefacing his workshop remarks upon which this essay is based, Rev. Hirano shared with characteristic humility that he “felt a great deal of pressure” being asked to speak in an international venue. He added, “I must ask for your forgiveness for my extremely limited comprehension of the proceedings and for my relative inability to speak formally about the day’s topic” of bringing Japanese and American approaches into dialogue.