The Differences of Ghost Culture Between China and Japan

This paper makes a contrast between Chinese ghosts and Japanese ones from three aspects,namely,the notion of ghost,the birth,image and action of ghost,and Chinese and Japanese people s different viewpoints of ghost.From questionnaires responded by 50 people in both China and Japan,the author find out Chinese and Japanese hold different opinions towards ghosts.Chinese are afraid of ghosts,while Japanese fond of them.In the further analysis of the three different aspects of ghost culture mentioned above,the author also find out that Japanese culture of ghosts is under the chief influence of Chinese Buddhism and Taoism,but not Chinese ghost culture. The reason why some Japanese like ghosts is probably because the ghost plays the role of blessing and supervising people in many local festivals in Japan.