Mark R. Mullins

Mark R. Mullins is Professor of Japanese Studies in the School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics, and Director of the Japan Studies Centre, New Zealand Asia Institute, The University of Auckland.

Prior to this appointment, he was engaged in academic work in Japan for twenty-seven years and taught at Shikoku Gakuin University, Meiji Gakuin University, and Sophia University, where he also served a three-year term as editor of Monumenta Nipponica.

He is the author, editor, and co-editor of a number of works, including Religion and Society in Modern Japan (Asian Humanities Press, 1993), Christianity Made in Japan: A Study of Indigenous Movements (University of Hawaiʻi Press, 1998), Religion and Social Crisis in Japan: Understanding Japanese Society Through the Aum Affair (Palgrave, 2001), Critical Readings on Christianity in Japan (Brill, 2015), and Disasters and Social Crisis in Contemporary Japan (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016).

in 2019 he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, by the Japanese Government in recognition for his contribution to the development of the sociology of religion in Japan, research on Japan in New Zealand, and promotion of academic exchanges and mutual understanding between Japan and New Zealand.

His current research focuses on neo-nationalism and religion in contemporary Japanese society.