At the Kamiyacho Open Terrace inside central Tokyo's Komyoji temple, customers are served tea by a young monk and in return asked only to offer prayers at the temple's altar. (Itsuo Inouye: AP)

By Hiroko Tabuchi, Associated Press, October 28, 2006

Tokyo, Japan -- The Kamiyacho Open Terrace cafe in central Tokyo has all the trappings of a trendy establishment -- good coffee, homemade dessert, an airy terrace.

But what makes the cafe truly interesting is its setting: inside the Buddhist Komyoji temple, one of many across Japan offering new services -- concerts, discos, yoga classes -- in a struggle to stay relevant despite an increasingly secular society.

"For Japanese, temples were once a part of daily life," said Keisuke Matsumoto, 24, a monk and the owner of the cafe. "I want Kamiyacho Open Terrace to be a place people can drop in casually and perhaps become a little curious about Buddhism."

The young priest will need patience and optimism. More than a millennium after it first arrived from mainland Asia in the sixth century, Buddhism is in crisis.

About 94 million Japanese were registered as Buddhist in 2005, almost three-quarters of the country's population. But for many, the only time they enter a temple is to attend a funeral -- driving many of the country's 75,000 temples to the verge of bankruptcy.

"Some priests can't even put food on the table from their temple-related work," said Takanobu Nakajima, an economics professor at Tokyo's Keio University. "Their congregations are so small the priests take second jobs and still barely manage to scrape by."

So young Buddhists like Matsumoto are trying to turn that around by reaching out to new groups -- and employing some clever entrepreneurship.

At Matsumoto's cafe, which overlooks a garden dotted with gravestones, visitors don't pay with money, but with prayer. All the coffee, tea and sweets served by robe-clad monks in the open terrace are free. Instead, the monks -- all volunteers from nearby temples -- suggest patrons put their hands together in prayer at the temple's grand altar before they leave.

Some temples are branching out in other ways. The Tsukiji Hongwanji temple in central Tokyo, for instance, offers theological seminars in English for foreigners, and has fitted its main hall with a pipe organ and conducts Western-style weddings to attract young couples who prefer a white dress and tuxedo to a traditional Buddhist ceremony.

Zenshoan temple in central Tokyo streams Buddhist sermons on the Internet, while Higashi Honganji temple aired games from the World Cup in Germany to attract local soccer fans.

In addition to his cafe, Matsumoto's Komyoji temple offers weekly yoga classes. He also spearheads a Web-based movement of young monks who organize festivals, discos and meditation sessions, and write daily blog entries on everything from Buddhist cuisine to music.

For priests who are stumped for ideas, help is increasingly at hand.

Hideo Usui, an editor at Gekkan Butsuji, a Buddhist monthly journal, has launched a Web site offering advice for priests trying to modernize their practices. Recent entries include "Buddhist rites for the modern lifestyle" and "Using the Internet to take funeral orders."

Matsumoto's cafe, which opened in 2004, hasn't led to many recruits, so far.

But Matsumoto is undaunted. He recently put on a free rock concert at Tsukiji Hongwanji temple for 1,000 20- and 30-somethings who went wild to the beats of the Zazen Boys before settling down for a Buddhist sermon.

"There's a lot Buddhism can offer modern society," he said. "It's just a matter of what temples are going to do about it."