David Lane

A couple years ago if you would have asked me about Japan, I would have probably said something about sushi, samurai, and crazy anime.  Japan is one of the most industrialized and technologically advanced nations in the world.  They have one of the largest cities in the world, some of the coolest cars in the world, and it appears as though they manufacture a good 25% of America’s gadgets.  So before actually traveling to Japan, I thought they were doing pretty well for themselves.  Why would they need us?  Behind the big buildings, the advanced technology, and the innovative mindset of the Japanese exists a culture of hopelessness.  The Japanese culture and traditions have trapped the people in a cage of shame and fear.  The people of Japan are hungry for hope and longing for a Savior but are clueless a way out, besides death, actually exists.  A need for missions in Japan exists that can unleash them from the binds their culture has on them.  Unfortunately, because of their culture, they are one of the hardest groups of people to minister to.  Thousands of missionaries have given up in Japan and left feeling like nothing can be accomplished.  It is for this reason Christians must evangelize Japan strategically.

Animism is the root of the problem in Japan.  It teaches everything is connected to the spiritual, and our duties as humans are to direct, manipulate, and reign over the spiritual realm.  Animism has combined with Shinto and Buddhism to construct one, sort of, ultimate religious practice.

Shinto is the belief rocks, trees, the sun, wind, etc. are all gods.  I visited a shrine in Japan and at this shrine were hundreds of stands lining the streets at which you could purchase any sort of souvenir or gift.  The thing that struck me the most was you could literally buy gods.  They were about one dollar and a multitude of designs you could purchase, and each design was actually a god.  People would buy these for good luck, out of respect, or even out of a sense of duty.  Shinto is a religion practiced because of tradition.  The Japanese people partake in the religion purely out of routine.  They go to the temples, pay a couple hundred yen, and then go get drunk.  It is a routine so engrained in their minds they do not even consider an alternative.  A lot of Japanese people do not even believe in a god at all, but they still practice religious routines out of respect for their ancestors.

Buddhism is the belief one should do no evil, should pursue good, and should cleanse one’s mind.  This, of course, can be taken in many different ways as people define for themselves what doing good means and what cleansing the mind takes.  Japan’s religion is, at its deepest level, a tradition with no outside commitment to faith or any sort of adherence to a universal law.

Another practice Japan is known for is the veneration of the dead.  Japan does in fact put a huge emphasis on respecting the dead, because they believe at death one enters into a spiritual realm.  The dead need to be respected on earth because if they are not, then they will be uncomfortable and not blessed in their new life.  They believe respecting your ancestors is incredibly important, because you are in a sense providing for their well-being.  If you go to Japan, you will undoubtedly see some gravesites that look almost like little, extremely expensive castles.  Japanese people believe putting the body in a comfortable and nice condition is important to the success of the ancestor in the next life.  In fact, the Japanese put such a focus on respecting the dead, during the recent tsunami, when there were still live people trapped under debris, the rescue workers were prioritizing dead bodies over live people.  It is imperative to them their family’s bodies be respectfully buried.

Family has a huge impact on the Japanese.  One of the worst things you can do in Japan is to bring shame or dishonor to your family because your ancestral line is so important it runs your life.  The Japanese people are motivated by fear.  They fear something they could do would bring shame to their family, so they work in order to prevent that.  This is also why the Japanese culture is so reserved, and they are not as individualistic as Americans.  For example, while taking the bus or train in Japan no one will talk at all, and if they do, it is an extremely quiet whisper.  The Japanese do not want to set themselves apart from each other at all.  They want to fit in so they can prevent even the slightest chance of shame.  Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world because teenagers are put under so much pressure by this code of honor.  Students have to pass one test in high school that, if passed, allows them to go to college and get a good job, or if failed, dooms them to farming or some job lacking in prosperity.  Every year students commit suicide because there is so much pressure on them to pass one test.  I was on a train while in Japan, and it stopped in the middle of nowhere.  There was no train station near where we were, so I asked my friend Rob, a missionary in Japan, what was going on.  He said we stopped most likely because someone had jumped in front of the train to commit suicide and that it was not an unusual thing.  The shame that engulfs the students and people of Japan is overbearing, and they search for a way out.

The Japanese family is generally different from the typical American family.  Usually in America, we find someone we love and want to have a relationship with, and we marry them.  In Japan, marriage is more of a tradition/obligation.  I am not saying all Japanese couples are not happy and do not love each other, but rather there is a multitude of Japanese families who marry for reasons other than love.  Family life in Japan is different all around.  The father of the household in no way acts as the leader.  He is detached from the rest of the family and usually spends all his time working or getting drunk.  The mother runs the household, and the kids study all the time.  Families in Japan work only because it would be dishonorable for them not to work.

Japan’s religious and cultural cages inhibit their ability to understand and react to the gospel.  The idea of one God who rules over us is not only completely absurd to them, but also is unattractive.  Their belief in Animism allows them to manipulate the spiritual world.  The Japanese do not understand the concept of one God being the ruler over us.  To them it does not make sense we would not control the gods.  Animism, Shinto, and Buddhism have completely brainwashed them, and they are unaware a different truth exists.  Shame and fear drive their culture, so it is nearly impossible to get them to stand out from the crowd and accept a new way of life.  They are so possessed and entangled by their culture they fear any sort of change because of the possibility it could bring shame to their family.  Family life in Japan is another key aspect that makes Christianity so hard to spread.  With the father, usually, wanting nothing to do with the rest of the family, a lack of leadership and drive exists.  Leadership does not exist, so they become complacent with their current status or merely don’t know their current status is not the way things should be.  For these reasons, Japan has become one of the hardest places to be a missionary to.  Japan has the highest rate of failed missionaries (missionaries who give up after only a couple years of being there) in the world.  The Japanese feel pain: they feel suffering, and they feel hopeless.  They need a way out but simply do not know one exists and are too fearful to really listen to an alternative.  That is why missions in Japan must be centered around building relationships.

If there is one major thing I have learned over my two trips to Japan, it is missions is a strategy.  You have to know the people group and the culture and figure out how you can engage them in a way meaningful to them.  For example, in Japan a large majority of the people have a desire to learn English, because it will help them with their future in business and American relations.  Seeing this desire, Rob Taylor started an English camp for kids in elementary school.  The Japanese are also very interested in American culture, and they love it when Americans visit. For this reason, Rob invites us over to help with the English camp as an incentive to come.  For Japanese kids to actually get to talk and interact with Americans is a big deal, so they are more inclined to show up and become engaged in the material.  This allows for us to begin building relationships with the kids, whose parents then become interested in why a group of twelve Americans would come all the way to Japan just to teach English.  So the English camp is step one of the strategy; then comes step two: Awana Camp.  The goal of the English camp is to grab the attention of the kids and parents and show them the environment in which their kids are is healthy, fun, and meaningful.  Once they see this we invite them to Awana Camp at which the Bible is taught and the gospel is shared.  This strategy then allows Rob to build relationships from his new “crop” of Japanese people, and he then begins to invite them to his church and different events he plans centered around the gospel.  The key to all of these strategies is building relationships.  Everything Rob does focuses on building a relationship and establishing credibility with the Japanese.  He brings us to Japan in order to plant a seed he can then water and turn into something more.  Relational ministry is the only way to reach the Japanese people.  In America, a large amount of people get saved at altar calls, from hearing a motivational and emotional speaker, or even simply growing up in a Christian family.  None of these can work in Japan.  To a 15-year-old kid in Japan, an altar call would be like standing up for execution, that is if there were any way you could get a Christian speaker to speak in front of Japanese people in the first place.  When ministering to a culture in which shame is the worst of all things, how can you get them to stand out from the crowd completely and essentially change their ideology and mindset as a whole?  It is imperative to build relationships.  It is the only way you can affectively reach the Japanese people groups and should be the only way to minister to anyone in the world.

Japan, just like thousands of other places in the world, is desperate for hope.  They have a desire to break away from the sad and limited culture they live in, but they are so bound by the chains of shame and fear they are blind to the truth.  A way out does exist, and God is working in Japan, but it requires more than just prayer and sending them Bibles, although those are extremely important.  It requires the church to engage in strategic missions and to build relationships just as Christ built relationships with His disciples.