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Ghost hunting shows

Today I'd like to talk about something that I find interesting about American TV culture. Recently in the US, shows that focus on paranormal things are becoming very popular. I'm not talking about dramas, but I'm talking about reality shows. In these reality shows, people go looking for things like ghosts or demons. These kinds of shows have become very popular in the US, but I haven't seen many of these shows in Japan. I am curious as to why the shows have gained such a following in the US, but are rare in Japan.

As someone who also watches the shows, I find them interesting to watch, and I also feel like a lot of people in the US have an obsession about the paranormal. I'm not sure how it is in Japan, but in the US I feel like a lot of people want to know what happens after you die.

I feel like maybe there is a much bigger desire in the US than in Japan to have proof that life doesn't end in death. My personal opinion is that this may be linked to the presence of Christianity and the belief that after we die our souls must go somewhere. Many people would like to see proof of that.

You may be wondering how ghosts could prove there is heaven or hell. In the Catholic belief system, there is a place called Purgatory. Purgatory is supposedly the place that souls who are not bad enough to go to hell but not good enough to heaven go. Another name for it is Limbo. This is a very basic explanation of Purgatory. I can't explain more than this as I am not Catholic so I am not exactly sure how it works. In any case, since many Christians believe that there may be a place souls who cannot move into heaven get "stuck", the proof that ghosts exist would also be proof of heaven and hell for them. For this reason, I think many people in the US are fascinated with shows related to hunting ghosts.

In Japan, less people have a religion than before. Many people seem to be what I would call "casual Buddhists". This means during ceremonies and traditional events such as funerals, they do Buddhist or even traditional Japanese traditions, but they don't practice the religion daily. I think ghost stories are still popular in Japan, but Japan doesn't have the same "need" to know as in America. This may be why there are not so many ghost hunting shows in Japan.

I would like to say one more time that these are just my opinions, so I'm not sure if any of these beliefs are true. What do you think? Have you seen ghost hunting shows in Japan? Do you think Japanese people also feel a need to know if there is life after death?

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