People wonder why I’m going to seek active missions work in such a modern nation as Japan. They think, “Haven’t they already heard?” or “It’s much too expensive to consider. Couldn’t you find a job there?”
My frequent reply is “No, and no,” in both cases. They haven’t heard. Out of one hundred and twenty-seven million, and liberal estimates put the number of “Christians” at about two percent of that. For those of you who aren’t numerically minded, that’s a mere 2.5 million. I would estimate at one percent, for barely over a million “Christians”.
Fighting syncretism
Why did I put Christians in quotes? From my experience and the testimony of missionaries who have spent substantial time in Japan, syncretism is a big problem. Traditional Japanese religion, which stems from Shinto (the official state religion) and Confucian thought, holds that “all roads lead to the top of the mountain”, and tradition also has it that this mountain was Mt. Fuji, which is worshiped as deity.
In an age of tolerance, this must be attacked! For without absolutes, society, government, commerce, and justice would collapse. A simple application of relativism in a daily transaction at the grocer would easily demonstrate the pitfalls of this worldview.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”1
Do the Japanese know that the claims of Jesus the Christ are higher than enlightenment? Or greater than a vacant peace?
Social needs
Having just completed Understanding Japan Through The Eyes of Christian Faith by Simon Lee, PhD., who just published the second edition this year, I am literally appalled by his testimony and analysis of modern Japan. After the Tokugawa isolation2 from about 1603 to 1853, Japan has socially declined, festering in wounds bound and hidden from the rest of society.
Common decency does not permit me to detail even the summary of sexual perversion and ardent racism. Elderly parents resort to renting “families” for a fee, to fulfill their social needs. Violence with random intent is on the rise. School stabbings, starvation, and abuse.
With the incredibly low birth rate and obscenely high work ethic, the Japanese are taking to never leaving home, the aptly titled parasite single3, which most commonly seems to be attributed to women. Alternatively, young men become hikikomori4, that is to say “social recluses”, never leaving their room for years, but to save face, they family does not seek the help of religious or medical institutions, for fear of the dishonorable repercussions.
Struggling for acceptance
This only seems to have created a strange market, for things which we in the West find quaint. Reuters recently reported on two items from Japanese electronics manufactures which have caught my attention.
The first appeals to the hikikomori: a feminine robot companion5. This 13-inch robot has the curves and the voice to mimic a female companion. I’m quickly reminded of Futurama‘s “Don’t Date Robots” segment from the “I Dated A Robot” episode, but the case stands clear. Now for a mere $170, the target audience, males from age 20 to 30, can buy a nonthreatening feminine social companionship from a kiss-blowing plastic robot that reacts to their voice.
For the parasite single, you can spend your disproportionate disposable income on Bandai’s “Love Bank”6. After selecting a type of digital boyfriend, the tomodachi-style heart-shaped bank, will embark on a role-playing adventure which may or may not culminate in that one true love. After depositing $500 in the bank, five dollars at a time, you can complete your romance with your digital boyfriend, and then start all over again. No mess, no heartbreak, no dressing up for dates.
Now, this certainly sounds Japanese, given the presentation and the precise exploitation of a new market, but is the problem being solved? A “no” resounds.
The only solution
“One has to love Japan in order to reach Japan.”7
Why can’t Japanese face the modern world? Why has their society socially, spiritually, and emotionally imploded? They lack Christ.
They feel alone, when Jesus promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”8
They feel unloved, when, “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”9
And this list of promises continues, but the question still remains: “How will they hear unless someone tells them?”
—
1 John 14:6, English Standard Version
2 Wikipedia: Edo Period
3 Wikipedia: Parasite Singles
4 Wikipedia: Hikikomori
5 Reuters: Japan’s Humanoid hottie
6 Reuters: Japan love bank
7 Lee, Simon; Understanding Japan Through The Eyes of Christian Faith; © 2008 iUniverse.
8 Hebrews 13:5b, English Standard Version
9 Romans 5:7-8, English Standard Version
