How large is the Christian influence in Japan?

[Spadesy]

It's treated like a hate religion and state security sectors closely monitor Muslims.

[Butthole_Surfer]

Originally Posted by Spadesy

It's treated like a hate religion and state security sectors closely monitor Muslims.

America or Japan?

[Mits]

That’s partly true in Japan. Recently, it revealed that security sector was monitoring some Muslim groups. This fact was evidenced by a secret document leaked from anonymous insider. This will be related to the war against terrorism. It means, US government told Japan to do this.

Japanese do understand that only aggressive fundamentalists will do terrorism, and most Muslims are not like that. Muslims in Japan are foreigners came from Southeast or Middle East Asia. Japanese Muslims are very rare (mostly in the case, one wants to get married with Muslim). Japanese’ impression for Islam is some sort of intolerance, I think. Average Japanese don’t like to deny someone else, and also don’t like a parson who does this. Monotheists will say like this:
“My God is the one and only God. I know the truth and your religion is wrong. You must go to hell, unless you convert to our God.”
This may be a natural and straightforward consequence of monotheistic religion. But Japanese will not feel good if they are said like above. So I think monotheistic religion will never be accepted widely in Japan.

[Spadesy]

America and Japan, but America does a better job of looking more PC about it.

[windwalker]

Originally Posted by mits

that’s partly true in japan. Recently, it revealed that security sector was monitoring some muslim groups. This fact was evidenced by a secret document leaked from anonymous insider. This will be related to the war against terrorism. It means, us government told japan to do this.

Japanese do understand that only aggressive fundamentalists will do terrorism, and most muslims are not like that. Muslims in japan are foreigners came from southeast or middle east asia. Japanese muslims are very rare (mostly in the case, one wants to get married with muslim). Japanese’ impression for islam is some sort of intolerance, i think. Average japanese don’t like to deny someone else, and also don’t like a parson who does this. Monotheists will say like this:
“my god is the one and only god. I know the truth and your religion is wrong. You must go to hell, unless you convert to our god.”
this may be a natural and straightforward consequence of monotheistic religion. But japanese will not feel good if they are said like above. So i think monotheistic religion will never be accepted widely in japan.

あー、面倒だから日本語で書く。

１．キリスト教は、日本国外のキリスト教徒がで楽観的に信じてるよりはるかに嫌われて る。
とても深い部分でな。アメリカでのイスラム教徒と同じ理由で。
「キリスト教というシステム自体に奴隷交易と植民地化が含まれていて、不可分だったか ら。イスラム教と原理主義者への資金還流システムと同じように、システム的に不可分だ から」
そして普通に考えてみろ、植民地化と奴隷交易が不可分な宗教とテロが不可分な宗教、果 たしてどっちが好かれると思う？　しかも、イスラム教徒は今のところ日本には実害を及 ぼしていない。キリスト教徒にはショックだろうが、現役のテロ組織がないだけイスラム 教よりはマシ、という程度の認識しかない。しかし、キリスト教関係者による未成年者信 徒に対する強姦事件が多発してるから、牧師＝性犯罪者どころか、
「キリスト教＝性犯罪誘発装置」
という認識が確実に浸透している。性犯罪発生率で日本を下回るキリスト教国家がひとつ も存在しないことから、本気でキリスト教は欠陥を内包した宗教であると認 識されてる。

２．キリスト教が日本で全く信用されない最大の欠点は「福音」そのものに ある。
俺はゾロアスター教も含むからセム的一神教と言うが、日本の神話は最初っから唯一絶対 新を僭称する邪悪で強大な神を打ち滅ぼしたところから始まっている。
唯一絶対神＝それはそう僭称するだけで絶対悪ということに自動的になる。

３．キリスト教は、上記の理由で、日本国内では徐々に
「プロテスタントもカソリックも韓国系カルトも含めて、キリスト教と名のつくものは全 部『外人が勝手に信じる分には大目に見てやるが、明らかにイスラム教やネオナチと大差 ない存在』」
と認識されつつある。

というか、キミら何を根拠に日本でキリスト教がイスラム教より好かれてると思ってるわ けだ？
日本に実害を及ぼしてないイスラム教より好かれてるという無根拠な思い上がりは、どこ から来るのだ？

日本は、西洋文明からキリスト教臭を消すろ過装置だ。
日本人のキリスト教化は、それこそ日本国内の社会になじめないテロリスト予備軍（＝ア ナーキストとか）としか迎合できないだろう。

[Mits]

あ～・・・私も日本人なので、日本語の方が問題なく議論できますが、それをここでやる べきではないでしょう。
それに、あなたほど過激ではないにしろ、私も一神教が日本で広く普及することは無いだ ろうと思っているし、無い方がいいとも思っていますよ。

I'm Japanese, so I can discuss with you in Japanese. But we should not do here.
Not so intense as you are, but I also agree that monotheistic religion will never be accepted widely in japan, and it would be better not.

[sailornyanko]

Originally Posted by Mits

Monotheists will say like this:
“My God is the one and only God. I know the truth and your religion is wrong. You must go to hell, unless you convert to our God.”
This may be a natural and straightforward consequence of monotheistic religion. But Japanese will not feel good if they are said like above. So I think monotheistic religion will never be accepted widely in Japan.

Mexico is kind of like that (over 90% of the population is Catholic). However catholicism kind of jumps the hoop of absolute monotheism and allows the worship of saints (a more christian PC way to worship lesser gods but still being technically monotheist). Mexicans seem to worship Judas and Guadalupe more than the Passion. If you live in Tepito (a slum in downtown Mexico City famous for it's crime) worshiping Judas is a must .

If they promoted the worshiping saints is okay (there's like over 300 of em to choose from) maybe some Japanese might find the religion more interesting.

[sailornyanko]

Originally Posted by DazarGaidin

I've thought about this before...when you have a religion based on many deities, especially when there are associated with very mundane things, do they become so commonplace that they lose meaning, particularly significant meaning. Religion itself as a whole becomes mundane and unimportant.

The Mayans before the Toltecs invaded some of their cities related their religion to absolutely every aspect of their lives. Not anyone would put painful contraptions on the heads of their babies with a high risk of killing them to shape their skulls for mere fashion purposes. Instead of becoming less relgious, they became more. Of course, not everyone had access to the more obscure parts of the religious knowledge (which is similar to ancient Egyptian religion). Only the priests and specific people could eat magic mushrooms because they believed the average Joe wasn't spiritually prepared to make good use of the knowledge the mushroom might give.

The Mayans as a society were so religious that depending on the day of their 52 year old calendar a child was born, the child would be given a name based on the date combination of Haab and Tzolkin names, similar to our Zodiac signs but much more complex. In modern Mexico people like to name their child if the baby is born on the same date as a saint. Guadalupe is a popular name for girls born on Dec 12th to give an obvious example. The ominous (and hideous) name Usnavi is mistakenly given to kids thinking Usnavi is a saint's name when in reality some cheap calendars include American holidays and there's some day posted in many calendars celebrating Us Navy day.

Getting back to the Maya, there were days in the month for war, commerce, actually everything in their society has to go akin to their beliefs. Some people believe it made their society a bit too rigid when you compare to other mesoamerican cultures. The Huicholes are also very religious, but not to the extreme degree of the ancient Maya. The Aztecs were very religious, but more focused on warfare because they had to make daily human sacrifices.

[shinri]

I trust that most of you will have the resources to look up the history of Christianity in Japan, so I won't bother rehashing it here. As for its influence in today's day-to-day culture....? Not much beyond weddings. Christmas isn't celebrated as the birth of Christ; it's more an event for couples to book an expensive hotel room and make declarations of love to each other. If my parents were still living there, they would make up the 1% (or even less) of the population that are true believers.

[greg]

Originally Posted by Mits

Monotheists will say like this:
“My God is the one and only God. I know the truth and your religion is wrong. You must go to hell, unless you convert to our God.”

Muslims take this one step further by saying, "You must convert to our God or we will kill and destroy you." Christians believe that God will ultimately judge the world. The 9th chapter of the Korean is basically where the concept of jihad comes from, and it basically commands Muslims to wage war on the "infidels" and to "fight those unbelievers, and let them find harshness in your heart." Contrast that with "love your neighbor" and "bless those who persecute you."

[windwalker]

Originally Posted by greg

Muslims take this one step further by saying, "You must convert to our God or we will kill and destroy you." Christians believe that God will ultimately judge the world. The 9th chapter of the Korean is basically where the concept of jihad comes from, and it basically commands Muslims to wage war on the "infidels" and to "fight those unbelievers, and let them find harshness in your heart." Contrast that with "love your neighbor" and "bless those who persecute you."

We want to understand what monopole religions believer thought,but we don't need the monopole itself.

Because if we want to know about bird,we don't need to became bird we only be the bird watcher.

That's the answer of the Christianity infulence in Japan.
Christianity had no chance to spread in Japan already, this is my opinion.

[Bernard_Monsha]

Originally Posted by sailornyanko

Mexico is kind of like that (over 90% of the population is Catholic). However catholicism kind of jumps the hoop of absolute monotheism and allows the worship of saints (a more christian PC way to worship lesser gods but still being technically monotheist). Mexicans seem to worship Judas and Guadalupe more than the Passion. If you live in Tepito (a slum in downtown Mexico City famous for it's crime) worshiping Judas is a must .

If they promoted the worshiping saints is okay (there's like over 300 of em to choose from) maybe some Japanese might find the religion more interesting.

They don't actually worship them, you ask them to interceded in prayer. It is non different from asking your neighbor to pray for you when you go for surgery.

[bardotka]

I've gone through this thread and read most your posts and... I don't know but if I come to think about it is that there are statistics showing the percentage of people beliving in this and that in this country and that country but from the daily life I can say that people say that they believe in sth but it is just saying... Nowadays fewer and fewer people have time to pray or go to church. And this is not even the matter of time but also we don't care about God as much as our ancestors did in the past. But sometimes maybe we don't have enough courage to say I don't practice any religion...

[Zach69]

I think many people don't understand the Japanese mindset when it comes to religion, and being American, I wont try to act like an authority, but as a Buddhist what I've been told by monks and priests is that it's not that big a deal. Japanese people have their own views on spirituality, so they can be Buddhist and Shinto and practice both of these religions without any conflict, but they have a problem with Christianity because it tends to be restrictive in this regard and that puts them off.

I have a friend who is from India that's Catholic. His family has been Catholic for over a 100 years, so I'm sure this sort of thing happens in Japan too, but again, they're just not as common. I do find it odd that churches show up in so many Anime Episodes as places of refuge.

Zach

[Daichi]

I've read of a couple of Catholic and Baptist churches over in Japan, but thats about it. And whoever said "My God is the one true one and if you don't convert we'll kill you", those people aren't religious themselves. I don't try to spread my Christian beliefs, but Christianity is a religion of love, not hate. Some Muslims, (not all of them) think that way.