The Japanese People Need Our Prayers

Japan was hit on March 11, 2011, by one of the largest earthquakes on record. A magnitude-9.0 quake caused a tsunami that slammed Japan’s east coast and left thousands dead.

Japan’s population in March 2009 was 127,076,183, making it the tenth most populated country. The Rev. Ron Hutchcraft, in a “Mission Network News” article, said Christians should pray for Japanese Christians. Less than one percent of Japan’s population identifies as “evangelical Christian,” and 70 percent reportedly claim no religion.

“They (Christians) are a remnant in that country,” Hutchcraft says. “(With) the millions of gods of Shintoism – the feeling that Christianity is a western religion – all these things have created great barriers, and my prayer now is for the people of God in Japan, that this could be their moment that they could (share their faith) because of their hope.”

The following information comes from Japan-guide.com, Wikipedia and “the Christian Post”:

Shinto and Buddhism are Japan’s two major religions. Religion does not play a big role in the everyday lives of most Japanese. The average person typically follows religious rituals at ceremonies like birth, weddings and funerals. They may visit a shrine or temple and participate in local festivals (“matsuri”), most of which have religious origins.

Shinto has no founder or sacred scriptures. It is deeply rooted in the Japanese people and traditions. “Shinto gods” are called “kami.” They are thought to be sacred spirits that take the form of things and concepts such as wind, rain, mountains, trees, rivers and fertility. Humans are thought to become kami after they die and are revered by their families as ancestral kami. The kami of extraordinary people are enshrined at some shrines. Some prominent rocks are worshiped as kami.

There are no absolutes in Shinto – no absolute right and wrong, and nobody is perfect. Shinto is an optimistic faith; humans are thought to be fundamentally good; evil spirits cause evil, many believe. The purpose of most Shinto rituals is to keep away evil spirits.

Buddhism began in India in the sixth century BC and consists of the teachings of the Buddha, Gautama Siddhartha. The Mahayana or “Greater Vehicle” Buddhism found its way to Japan. About 90 million Japanese have Buddhists roots. Many households keep a small altar in order to pay respect to their ancestors. Figures that state 84 to 96 percent of Japanese adhere to Shinto and Buddhism are not based on self-identification but come primarily from birth records, following an old practice of officially associating a family line with a local Buddhist temple or Shinto shrine.

Many Japanese Christians live in Western Japan, where Jesuit missionaries were active in the sixteenth century. In 1542, the first Europeans from Portugal landed on Kyushu in Western Japan. Kyushu’s barons welcomed foreign trade that brought new weapons and gunpowder. The main reason for the extinction of Christianity in Japan by 1638 was the government’s move to exert absolute control. This was thought impossible with the interference of an “aggressive and intolerant foreign religion” like Christianity. In 1873, after the “Meiji restoration,” freedom of religion was encouraged. Since World War II, the number of Japanese Christians has slowly increased.

Michelle A. Vu, a “Christian Post Reporter,” notes that one mission leader says the problem of evangelizing Japanese is the Japanese mentality itself.

Japanese people value human relationships more than truth and principle, says Dr. Minoru Okuyama, director of the Missionary Training Center in Japan, during his presentation at the Tokyo 2010 Global Missions Consultations.

“…They are afraid of disturbing human relationships of their families or neighborhood, even though they know that Christianity is the best,” said Okuyama, who previously was Buddhist and a Shintoist. “Thus, Japanese make much of human relationships more than the truth…For Japanese, one of the most important things is harmony; in Japanese ‘Wa’…Those who harm the harmony are bad, whether they are right or not has been beside the question.”

Okuyama noted that Christianity is thriving in neighboring China and Korea because the mentality of the people is to “make more of truth or principle than human relationships.”

Pray for the Japanese people.