Christianity to Japan Essay -- Religion Religious Japanese Christian E

Christianity In lacquerJapan has been a home for Shinto and Buddhist religions for centuries. The Christian missionaries during the 16th, 19th and twentieth centuries worked hard to evangelize the Japanese nation but could not hail desired success. There efforts in bypast failed partly due to sanctions impose by the local rulers. The Jesuits missionaries traveled with Spanish and Portuguese traders to many bowls of the States and Asia-Pacific and established their churches and religious missions. They were funded, sponsored and trained by their respective governments in tack together to spread Christianity. At several places they preached the Christian faith by military capability but the aboriginal population did not accept it wholeheartedly. Initially the Jesuits targeted the elite group class of the country and a larger number was converted. The rulers to a fault hale their subject to embrace the same faith. About 300,000 Japanese were converted in the first phase. Later on, Christianity was prohibited as the rulers started seeing them as a threat to their authority. Following a change of regime, the ban was lifted and missionaries were once more than allowed to enter Japan. Like many Native American tribes, the Japanese also resisted the new religion. As a result, presently Christians form only 1% of the fundamental population in Japan. This paper is focused on how the Christian religion was introduced in Japan, the evolution of evangelism, establishment of churches, the restrictions and hurdles faced by the missionaries and priest of the new religion and the response of Japanese nation towards an extraterrestrial faith. All these queries are answered in detail given as follows. Christianity in Japan spread in various phases. Like many new(prenominal) parts of world, it was brought by religious missionaries and the European traders and invaders. It is almost in midway of the 16th century that the Portuguese traders arrived on the land of risi ng sunshine. The traders, who landed at Kyushu, brought along gunpowder that was not previously know to the Japanese. The local barons cordially responded to these traders mainly because of the weapons they possessed. The traders were also accompanied by Christian missionaries who were allowed to conduct their religious preaching by the local barons. A large number of Japanese were converted by these missionaries. The formal conversion to Christianity began when Francis Xavier, the Sp... ...n the Kanto area and 23.8 percent in the Kansai region. At the very least, the fact that scores of young Japanese are choosing Christian weddings indicates that the present environment is much more open to Christianity and that the stigma once attached to the Christian faith has declined during the past several decades. Mullins further states that this observance of Christian rituals may not be considered as an indication of solid faith in the religion quite it could be associated with popular movie stars and all of that. At the turn of century, the total number of Christians living in Japan is estimated at about 1,075,000 that accounts to slight than 1 % of the total residents. The Kondanshas Encyclopaedia describes that, There were 436,000 Catholics with some 800 parishes in 16 dioceses, while Protestants numbered 639,000 with nearly 7,000 churches. The statistics shows that overall the evangelist faith has not authoritative the desired response in the Japanese society. No significant conversions keep up been witnessed during the last half century. It is still a foreign religion and the atomic number 53 practiced by a small minority is also more Japanized rather than Christianized.