'Hatsumode' is first prayer in a shrine at new year

In Japan,the population of followers of each religion that Buddhism is 48%,Shinto is 46%,Christianity is 1.1% and other religion is 4.3%.But It is said that adding all populations by this statistic is 1.5 times the population of Japan so It might be not information correctly.
For my feeling,There are not many  people to have some religion in my Japanese friends and much more I have never met a person who have faith in Shinto.We don't much notice in urban area,if we go to rural area we can see that Buddhism is most popular in Japan.But The imperial family has been Shinto for generations.And Many of people go to the shrines and pray for new year even if people have no faith or have an other faith.It seems that It is rare case all of the world.
But so-called 'Hatsumoude'   new year praying  in shrine is life style all of Japanese rather than religious event.The other event  called 'Shichigosann'  celebrating in shrines when children are 3 or 5 or 7 years old is same thing.

So,I went to 'Hatsumoude' to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura yesterday.There were many Japanese people and many foreigner tourist in that shrine.But most of all prayer in front of main shrine were Japanese ,hardly foreigner prayer.I think many of all foreigner people have something faith so just coming  to  sightseeing,they might not  pray for other God.