Forum - View topicAnswerman - How Is Christianity Regarded In Japan?
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Guile
Posts: 595 |
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I agree. Making fun or mocking Christianity is pretty common these days Perhaps a few decades ago it was taboo, but these days the only religion you're not allowed to mock is Islam/Muslims. Christianity is fair game to berate and disrespect in American media and culture. |
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tintor2
 Posts: 1820 |
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Interesting. D.Gray-man constantly touches yet it became the slowest famous shonen manga to grasp it. Also, I heard christmas in Japan is mostly about romance with Persona 4 doing special sociallinks events with the girls.
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The Black Stones
Posts: 22 |
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I visited Japan a couple years ago as part of a University study group and stayed with a family near Sapporo for the period of time that I was up there. I was told later from the mother that they were Christians because there was going to be a childrens day during the time I was there and she really wanted to attend. I went along because I am a Christian as well so it was very neat experience for me to see how things were done there compared to here.
For my church, we never had a childrens day. Children after a certain age are just expected to sit in and behave like all the adults. While it seemed like in the Japanese church, it wasn't until you were near hitting double digits that you would finally join in (which made sense because kids are super rowdy). They actually had a decent number of people there (I'd estimate between 40-50 maybe) and I don't know if it was because it was a special day but we all had lunch there as well. They actually had a small mausoleum in the basement where some people were buried as well, which well, I had never seen anything like that around here. With the limited space for cemeteries it makes sense though. The thing I remember the most though, was as I was being giving a tour, the organist got on the organ and then started playing the main song from Totoro and all the older women joined in and started singing along with it as well. It was a really fun to see just how big Ghibli movies are, and mixed in with that setting was interesting. I wish I had asked about things a bit more, but I didn't feel right prying into things. |
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1034 |
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Handmaid's Tale is attacking a certain flavor of Christianity, not Christianity itself. Not to mention, Margaret Atwood is Canadian. |
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prime_pm
 Posts: 2336 Location: Your Mother's Bedroom |
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Last year Martin Scorsese released a movie called Silence which was loosely based on Japan's persecution of Christians during the Tokugawa shogunate. It starred the 2nd Spider-Man, Kylo Ren, and Ra's al Ghul.
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invalidname
 Contributor Posts: 2444 Location: Grand Rapids, MI |
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An interesting contemporary example is Yukihiro Matsumoto, creator of the popular Ruby programming language and a Mormon bishop. |
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Chrono1000
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Tempest
 I Run this place.ANN Publisher  Posts: 10420 Location: Do not message me for support. |
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I did a quick search. Various sources list 1 to 3 million Christians in Japan. "1 million" https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2009/02/24/reference/christianitys-long-history-in-the-margins/#.WgylAGhSzAQ "Less than half a percent" https://books.google.ca/books?id=RB2goIgxF68C&pg=PA62&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false "3 million" https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2007/90138.htm "1 percent" https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2298.html "Christianity 1.5%" https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ja.html#People "Of citizens who claimed a faith [...] 1 percent was Christian." (so less than 1% of the total?) https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2006/71342.htm 2.3 % http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/9460.html The US state department and CIA claim figures anywhere from 1% to "3 million" (about 2.3%). I couldn't find an official Japanese government source on this. Census statistics published by the government of Japan don't list percentages per religion  http://www.stat.go.jp/english/data/nenkan/66nenkan/1431-26.htm
Perhaps Justin's article should have said "1~2%" but the main point, that the percentage is really really small, is still accurate. -t |
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EricJ2
 Posts: 4016 |
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Shintoism, more than its Buddhism influence, is seen mostly as a series of rituals to insure peace, harmony and good fortune in your own life throughout this world, which keeps with the Japanese/Asian concept of minding your own darn business. (Also why it's been losing faith among modern urban Tokyo-ites, who can't quite get around the idea that trees and ancestors will bring answers in their own confused life, and making, quote, "all religion" now seem like something that belongs to their traditional post-war grandparents splashing water on their doorsteps.) Christianity has a more global view, that God wants a more united world of brotherhood before the next, and both sects of Christianity believe in spreading the message as wide as possible. And since Nobunaga's partnership with the Portugese missionaries was seen as "betraying" the Japanese ethic to conquer the country, we get metaphors like Spice & Wolf, where Western religions are the stuff of "conquerors", and all those poor animal/nature gods feel resentful about being put "out of work", as the country starts losing its old traditional ethics...Meanies! The association with Nobunaga is what fueled most of the "revenge" persecution up until the 19th-cty., but with the ban lifted and Christianity only a minority, it's treated like any other Japanese minority--Ie., "What are they thinking, trying to be, like, different from everyone else?" And since most of the mission work is Catholic (also more buried in arcane symbolic ritual than Protestantism), Japanese don't make much attempt to parse the message--Except for symbolizing the "clueless West" and suggesting the new folk don't understand Asian religions as much as they themselves don't understand Western ones. The image of the Catholic priest is often the clueless "panda" image of a Westerner trying to preach "Love and forgiveness!" in the middle of a crisis, with the "Can't we all just get along?" gag that just being nice to everybody isn't exactly going to help the situation. Except for nuns, of course, which are still seen as angelic, ethereal, virginal, and incorruptible in their devotion to "Love and forgiveness", no matter what the danger....Especially when they help out boxers. 
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vonPeterhof
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Codeanime93
Posts: 599 |
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I think famous Japanese Catholic Shiro Amakusa always gets portrayed as an antagonist in Japanese pop culture pretty much in the same breath as Nobunaga Oda. Just from Makai Tensho alone where he sells out to the devil pretty much right after being killed. Plus of course also they make him out to be an evil gay guy too in Makai Tensho.
I mean as a religion it's not all firmly made evil though, just mocked comically like Sengoku Basara's calling it Xavism in order not to offend anyone. Last edited by Codeanime93 on Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:06 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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jdnation
Posts: 1998 |
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A sad part of history is that the majority of Christians living in Japan who survived hundreds of years of persecution were largely situated in Nagasaki, which America decided to obliterate during WWII with the 2nd Atomic Bomb.
This event also tied into Catholic prophecies regarding Our Lady of Fatima, of which Japan had its own privilege with Our Lady of Akita. There are some positives for western shows about Christianity. For example 'The Young Pope' gives an honest look at the current problems in the Vatican, the liberal hypocrisy in the Church by members who want to change it, but still has the main character upholding Tradition and being virtuous, but struggling with a conflict over his relationship with his parents which occasionally manifests as a crisis of faith. The only problem I have recommending that show however is the copious amounts of HBO-mandated nudity and gratuitous sex scenes. This has been a problem for all their shows. It's just pointless and within the context of the show is more for shock value where clever writing and direction would've been better. Someone brought up Kids on the Slope, which was good, but was a minor background detail, though it did inform the characters. Largely in anime/Japanese games, Christianity and Christian symbols and Western Christian history is largely used as inspiration in fantasy settings or occult stuff or as a token thing when non-Japanese characters are involved or within a Western setting. See Hellsing, Trigun, Arslan, Blood Blockade Battlefront. It's more for window dressing. Like we have Cool Japan, well that's like Cool Christianity (tm). A lot of it is pretty badass though, I must admit... |
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harminia
 Posts: 2000 Location: australia |
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Buddy. You haven't been watching much TV. These days like 50% of shows have religious stuff in them. Like, last few seasons of Supernatural have been almost completely religion focused. Half the cast are either Angels or Demons. There's Preacher, which is about religion and about God having gone missing, and had a scene showing Jesus having sex with a chick. I think there was some tv-movie on Netflix or something about some couple's son being Lucifer or something. There'd be heaps more I could list but I don't watch enough TV to be familiar with them or be able to think of them offhand. Most fantasy shows these days will at least have one episode about like Angels or something. Generally about the biggest limit Americans have is towards portraying Jesus. Seems like everything else is fair game, but if you show Jesus in some way you're kinda pushing boundaries (unless you're a show that's trying to be/known to be edgy/push boundaries) so I don't think a lot of shows are comfortable portraying that. Lucifer and angels and God? Yeah, sure. But Jesus might get your show cancelled. I don't know if there's a figure in Japanese religions/mythology that has that same effect. |
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The World We Know
 Posts: 35 Location: Austin, TX |
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Important to note here is that SIlence is based on the classic work by Shusaku Endo, a Japanese author who was also Christian. It's an amazing work, and one that I think is very important for Christians in the west to read, in addition to being analyzed for its literary value. I should throw this out there, too—while few, few, few anime feature actual Christian content (most of it is used in series as plot devices, as mentioned earlier), some series do make actual, good use of pieces here and there, and thematically, anime and manga present rich ground for analysis (ex. Haibane Renmei). |
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FukuchiChiisaia
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For further reference >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFyLcK6cnKs (NHK Documentary: Seasoning the Seasons - The Churches of Nagasaki: Prayers through the Ages)
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