Christianity in Japan Today

The Japanese people consider Christianity as a foreign religion. Because of historical and political backgrounds, the Christian faith has been related to the bitterness of the past such as colonialism and the hidden agenda of the West to infiltrate Japan. Also the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic attacks, which were committed by the United States, a western superpower, confirms this way of reluctant attitude and thinking towards Christianity. The lack of interest and sometimes ineffective evangelism has resulted in an unawareness concerning what the Japanese people view as Christianity. The Japanese people view Christianity as an adopted entity into certain ceremonies in Japan, like Christmas where people decorate Christmas trees and buy presents for each other.

The Japanese modern weddings are also considered as so-called Christian weddings whereby the couples marry in the ‘church’ where women are dressed up in white and men in a suit. However, all of these may be elements of western culture but are not the elements of the true Christian faith. The Japanese people have adopted these cultural elements into their lives but not the real message and essence of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amidst of all this, demographically, the Japanese church is becoming old. There are too many old people in leadership of the churches today, and not all of the old aged leadership in the church are able to relate to the youth in Japan or even cope with the modern age of high-tech developments in their nation.

Currently, the average age of a pastor in Japan is approaching sixty years. Seventy five percent of the pastors are over fifty-five. There are more pastors active in the church in Japan that are past eighty than there are those under thirty (www.asianaccess.org).

Secondly, the Korean immigrants have been very active in church planting and the evangelization of the Japanese. However, due to racial issues that I have described before, it is difficult to attract more Japanese to the Christian faith.

One thing I have personally noticed when I travel to Japan is that there are upcoming international churches, some led by the Japanese and some by immigrant pastors from Asia and Africa. These churches are mixtures of Filipinos, Africans, other Asians and even Europeans. Could it be that these immigrants will be influencing the future of Christianity in Japan? Due to the low birth rate soon Japan will be confronted with marriage problems. There will be not enough potential partners for the young to marry. Will it be that the Japanese will lose their so called homogeneity and marry people from other races and with many immigrants who profess Christianity? How that would affect the church in Japan is a very interesting subject for research on its own.

For the rest of the information, please refer to Understanding Japan through the Eyes of Christian Faith.