The modern era has been a prolific period for new religious movements in Japan. In Japan, scholars define a new religion as having most or all of the following attributes:

1. Establishment within the last two centuries, usually characterized by features that suggest a religious response to the crises of modernity;
2. A definite moment of establishment and usually a founder possessing special charisma;
3. An important new, distinctive revelation or realization, expressed through some novel doctrine and usually attributed to supernatural sources;
4. A separate institutional structure;
5. Distinctive rites or practices.

In Japan, "old" new religions, which appeared before the restoration of the Meiji emperor in 1868, are distinguished from "new" new religions, which originated after 1970. Some Japanese new religions since the 1960s have become international religions with converts in other countries, while new religions originating in other countries have made converts in Japan...