Within the religious landscape of Japan, Shinto has most often functioned not as an exclusive creed but as a flexible matrix of practices centered on kami, harmonizing readily with other traditions. For centuries, it has been deeply intertwined with Buddhism, to the point where many shrines and temples were historically linked and people moved between rites without sensing any contradiction. This long-standing syncretism meant that doctrinal clashes were rare, and what tensions did arise tended to be rooted in institutional power or politics rather than in spiritual hostility. Most people have been content to participate in Shinto festivals, Buddhist ceremonies, and even Christian-style rituals as different ways of honoring life’s passages and the unseen world.

The sharpest conflicts emerged when Shinto was drawn into the service of state ideology. During the Meiji period, the government elevated State Shinto and enforced a separation of kami worship from Buddhist institutions, which led to the suppression of Buddhist temples and images in some regions. This same state-backed Shinto, with its emphasis on emperor reverence and national identity, generated friction with Christianity and other foreign religions, especially when believers resisted participation in rites framed as civic duties. In such moments, the tension lay less in the everyday spirituality of shrine worship and more in the demand for ideological conformity.

In more recent times, overt religious conflict remains relatively rare, yet subtle points of contention persist around the public role of Shinto. Debates over shrine-related political symbolism, such as controversial memorial sites, or over the place of Shinto rituals in official ceremonies, reveal how questions of history, nationalism, and collective memory can gather around sacred spaces. New religious movements that draw on Shinto elements may also encounter resistance from more traditional institutions, reflecting concerns about continuity and authenticity rather than outright theological dispute. Overall, when friction appears, it tends to arise where Shinto intersects with power, identity, and public life, while at the level of personal practice, coexistence and layering of traditions remain the norm.