Scholars of religion have long considered the question of how to introduce religious literacy into public school education. But efforts to enhance religious literacy in schools have often overlapped with, or have been coopted by, various parties that aim to use schools to engage in indoctrination or proselytization. Additionally, ambiguous terms such as “morality” have blurred the legal boundaries of what counts as “religion,” and various policy initiatives such as fostering the “human figure” (ningenzō) or enhancing students’ “zest for living” (ikiru chikara) have often had explicitly religious overtones. This talk considers the post-defeat history of religious studies scholars as educational policy actors in Japan, showing that scholars of religion have often engaged in normative determinations of what counts as “good” and “bad” religion and therefore what needs to be taught in Japan’s public schools. I show that religious studies expertise rarely translates into effective educational policy, and I show that scholarly pronouncements on the need for religious literacy or the cultivation of religious sentiment (shūkyō jōsō) often are put to purposes that religious studies scholars have not intended.