Japan
Japan is a remarkable country with a remarkable history. It has the world’s third largest economy, universal literacy (despite a highly complex writing system), admirable public safety, and arts that are envied around the world. It has transformed itself at several points in the past. Most notably it leapt in a single generation from an isolated feudal society to a world power. The islands include tropical beaches, snowbound reaches, vast metropolises, ancient temples, active volcanoes, and terraced hillsides. Its people are polite, orderly, educated, and industrious. It celebrates both its traditional culture and its vibrant pop culture.
However, while Kyoto is a sightseer’s paradise, Akihabara a geek mecca, and the country’s Zen temples and dojos the goal of pilgrims, Japan is far from a wonderland.
Economically Japan has been in an extended recession since the 1990s, with no end in sight. With a steadily shrinking population, there is not much hope for economic growth domestically, and a strong yen is undercutting exports by driving prices up. In recent years the Chinese juggernaut has overtaken Japan’s economy for second place behind that of the United States. Where lifetime employment was once the rule, loyal employees are finding themselves forced into earlier and earlier retirement, and young college graduates are finding that stable jobs are nowhere to be found.
Japan can not seem to muster the political will necessary to confront its intractable problems. Since 2006 no prime minister has survived in office through an entire calendar year. After fifty years of nearly unbroken one-party rule, this political instability is disconcerting, and few Japanese put much hope in politicians.
Crime, mental illness, and social problems are on the rise. While the streets of Japan are still far safer than those of the U.S., anxieties are up. Disturbed individuals stab random schoolgirls and can offer no explanation. About a million boys and young men have made themselves hermits in their parents’ homes. The thriving sex industry continues to exploit women “trafficked” into Japan and at sex-tourism hotspots in other parts of Asia that cater to Japanese travelers.
Japanese religious attitudes can be difficult for Westerners to understand. Most Japanese practice both Buddhism and Shintō, live by Confucian principles, and deny that they have a religious faith. Many will also tell you that they can’t become a Christian because they are Japanese. About eight percent practice “new religions,” cult-like sects that have proliferated since World War II. Nevertheless, although churches are commonly described as "dark," Christianity has a positive image among Japanese.
Though Protestant missionaries first reached Japan’s shores a little over 150 years ago, a large harvest is yet to come. For more than two centuries before that, Christianity was an illegal religion, punishable by death. This brutal, systematic persecution instilled an abiding sense that Christianity is for foreigners. Today fewer than half of one percent (0.4%) of the population belong to Protestant churches, and fewer than a quarter of a percent (0.2%) actually attend. Most congregations number fewer than three dozen on an average Sunday morning.
The churches of Japan lack shepherds. One out of seven has no pastor. Most pastors are near or above retirement age, and few young Christians are preparing for ministry. With pastors and seminarians so scarce, there is little appetite for planting new churches. Many churches are stagnant or in decline.
God has a plan for Japan. We are not privy to the details, but we do know that God intends to gather a people from every tribe and language and people and nation. That includes Japan. We long, pray, wait, and labor for Japan’s great day of harvest, when many will call upon the name Iesu Kirisuto (Jesus Christ).