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A growing body of research describes connections between religion and economic activity through the language of commodification and marketization. Although this scholarship rightly challenges the assumption that religion is or should be divorced from worldly concerns, it still relies on distinctions between religion and the economy as isolable, reified entities. Rejecting this binary approach as untenable, we argue that studying the corporate form enriches the academic study of religion by providing concrete examples of how people create institutions and how organizations turn human bodies into resources while also fostering individuals’ devotion to collective agendas. Attention to the corporate form enables us to keep money and power in view as we trace historical formations and current manifestations of religious organizations. We investigate Japanese genealogies of the corporate form to elucidate some generalizable principles for how nonprofit religions and for-profit companies alike generate missions, families, individuals, and publics.

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Religion played a prominent role in the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952) that followed the brutal Pacific War (1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945). Officially, the occupiers were to promulgate religious freedom, separate religion from the state, and encourage the Japanese people to develop a 'desire for religious freedom'. Promulgating religious freedom was the easy part. Separating religion from the state without infringing on religious freedom was far more challenging, and the ambiguous objective of instilling a desire for religious freedom in the Japanese populace was nearly impossible to measure. This review article provides a brief overview of trends in Occupation research, traces historical changes and paradoxes in Occupation religions policy and examines the unexpected and frequently ironic outcomes of that policy. It provides a cursory look into the postwar eff lorescence of 'new religions' and the politically fraught category of 'State Shintō'. It closes with an overview of archives and records on the Occupation. Video abstract (click to view)The Allied Occupation of Japan (1945)(1946)(1947)(1948)(1949)(1950)(1951)(1952); 'the Occupation' hereafter) that marked the close of the brutal Pacific War (1941)(1942)(1943)(1944)(1945) was a pivotal moment in the history of modern Japanese religions. This was not only because Occupation reforms brought significant changes to