section_path: Demographics/Shinto outside Japan
section_name: Shinto outside Japan
paragraph_text: Shinto outside Japan
  
  The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries were marked by the expansion of the Empire of Japan, which also led to the spread of Shinto in the colonized territories. In total, from 1868 to 1945, 1,640 shrines were built in territories under Japanese control. In addition, starting in 1885, Japanese began to move to Hawaii, most of whom left Japan for economic reasons; Since 1908, emigration to Brazil also began, where the Japanese worked on coffee plantations. The emigrants built shrines to preserve their culture and worship traditional deities.
  
  Jinja outside Japan are termed kaigai jinja ("overseas shrines"), a term coined by Ogasawara Shozo. When the Japanese Empire collapsed in the 1940s, there were over 600 jinja within its conquered territories, many of which were later disbanded. Japanese migrants have also established jinja in countries like Brazil, while Shinto's lack of doctrinal focus has attracted interest from non-Japanese; in the United States, for example, European Americans have played a significant role in introducing Shinto.