wfn.org | Christianity Is Too `Foreign' to Thrive in Japan

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

3-June-1999 
99217 
 
    Christianity Is Too `Foreign' to Thrive in Japan 
 
    `Going Christian' is often viewed as a betrayal of Japanese culture 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
HIROSHIMA, Japan  - For Min Kyu Kim, practicing Christianity in Japan 
hasn't always been easy. He says his colleagues stare at him when he says 
grace before a meal or speaks of Sunday worship. 
 
    It doesn't appear that things are likely to get easier anytime soon for 
Japanese Christians, who constitute only about 1 percent of the population. 
Church attendance is down, and growth is very slow. 
 
    "It's quite frustrating," Kim said recently after a Sunday service at 
crowded Hiroshima Korean Church, which had about 80 people packed into its 
pews. That's an unusually large turnout for a Christian congregation in 
Japan; the national average attendance at worship is just 35. "Even during 
lunch, the employees at work, if I pray, they're quick to notice that I'm 
different, very foreign - even though I look the same." 
 
    Christianity has not flourished in Japan in recent years as it has in 
some of its Asian neighbors, notably South Korea, China and the 
Philippines. In Japan, where most people are Shinto/Buddhist, Christianity 
is still regarded as a "foreign" creed - admirable, perhaps, but unsuitable 
for ordinary Japanese. 
 
    "For most Japanese, there's the idea that if you've become a Christian, 
you've given up part of your Japanese-ness," said the Rev. Bill Moore, a 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission worker in Japan along with his wife, 
Ann. "Sometimes it's almost as if you've betrayed your culture ... 
especially for the Japanese, who have such a strong national identity." 
 
    That's the story heard repeatedly by a nine-member PC(USA) delegation 
that visited numerous religious and educational institutions in Asia during 
March and April. The tour, led by the Rev. Douglas Oldenburg, the General 
Assembly moderator, saluted the church's involvement in education worldwide 
as part of this "Year with Education." 
 
    Moore said Christians are often perceived as "anti-social" or "selfish" 
for "breaking the harmony of the family unit" by not observing many 
traditional Shinto and Buddhist rituals, especially that of praying to 
spirits to recognize the dead. 
 
    "While the Christian church is tolerated ... the Christian faith does 
not belong in Japan," Moore said. "It's the consensus that Christian faith 
means the West, and that does not fit into Japanese culture." 
 
    Japan's population of 125 million includes about 1.5 million 
Christians, approximately 1 percent, according to 1995 statistics. The 
country has almost 450,000 Catholics in about 800 parishes in 16 dioceses, 
and Protestants have 7,726 churches with about 527,000 members. The figures 
also include a small population of Orthodox Christians. 
 
    In contrast, Shinto, an indigenous religion based on ancestor and 
nature worship, has about  117 million members in 200 sects and 
denominations, while Buddhism, an imported faith centering around mental 
and moral self-purification, has nearly 90 million followers in 207 sects 
and denominations. Virtually all Japanese, except Christians, are regarded 
as being Shintoist; most are also Buddhist. 
 
    "In Japan, it's easier not to be Christian," said Moore, whose 
responsibilities include establishing new congregations in a northern 
suburb of Osaka and Kobe. "It's always easier to do what the majority 
does." 
 
    In the late 19th century, Shinto was made a state religion, stressing 
worship of the Emperor as a divinity and the racial superiority of the 
Japanese. All Japanese, regardless of their religious affiliations, were 
forced to worship at Shinto shrines. 
 
    In 1941, to solidify control over religious groups, the government 
limited its official recognition to only two Christian bodies, one 
consisting of Roman Catholics and the other a forced union of all 
Protestants. This newly formed entity was known as Kyodan or the United 
Church of Christ in Japan, which today has about 200,000 members. In 1946, 
Allied occupation authorities stripped Shinto of its state-religion status 
and reduced it to the level of a sect. 
 
    On Jan. 1, 1946, Emperor Hirohito renounced all claim to divinity. The 
Japanese constitution of 1947 re-established absolute freedom of religion 
in the country and officially ended state support of Shinto. While many 
Japanese became Christians, their numbers soon began to decline. 
 
    In today's Japan, other factors, including the standard six-day work 
week and the practice of requiring children to attend school two or three 
Saturdays a month, serve as incentives for families to skip church on 
Sundays and spend "quality time" at home. Sunday school attendance also is 
down. 
 
    Kim said he barely has time to attend worship, because he often has to 
work on Sunday, and many social activities also take place on that day. He 
said he struggles to find spiritual and social balance. 
 
    An American visitor at Kim's church echoed his comments. 
 
    "Here is very different. I feel lonely, like it's not so friendly," 
said Do Dan Esaka, a Korean woman from Chicago. "In the United States, the 
Korean church is very friendly; maybe I don't understand how things are 
when I come here." 
 
    Currently, a mere 0.22 percent of Japan's population attends Christian 
services. Total church attendance was up by only 1.5 percent last year. 
Such trends are prompting serious concern about the future of the Christian 
church in Japan. Congregations nationwide face dwindling attendance and 
aging memberships. 
 
    "Rumor has it that in 20 years nearly half of our churches will be 
vacant and for sale, since our elderly membership will have passed away 
with no young people to replenish the churches," said the Rev. Kyohei 
Minaga, the general secretary of the Council on Cooperative Mission in 
Tokyo, which is comprised of churches, social-work institutions and schools 
that cater to Christians. 
 
    Attracting new members is like trying "to draw water with a bamboo 
basket," Minaga added, employing an old Japanese proverb. 
 
    And when a Christian church does manage to attract new members, he 
said, they often lose them after a short while. 
 
    "A Christian sociologist said that Japanese Christians have an average 
`life span' of two years and eight months," Minaga said, adding that "we do 
not see many young faces in the church today." 
 
    The future is now as far as the 9,000-member Reformed Church in Japan 
(RCJ) is concerned. If the 53-year-old denomination is to survive, it must 
instill the Gospel in young members, Reformed leaders told the delegation 
during its visit to Nagoya, a manufacturing center about 200 miles north of 
Osaka. 
 
    "Leadership training for the young people, the next generation and the 
next generation is our main concern," said the Rev. Yasunori Ichikawa, a 
professor at the RCJ's only seminary, in Kobe. "So they will grow in such a 
way (that) they can take the foundation of our Reformed faith and overcome 
our weaknesses and go forward into the 21st century." 

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