Lausanne World Pulse – Japan's Spiritual Change Over the Past Fifty-five Years
By Kenny Joseph
Every time I am discouraged or disappointed in a situation or a person, I remember Mr. Togasaki. I also remember the early Assyrian-Nestorian missionaries of the second century who spent six months on horseback, slept under the stars and ate the mutton—all in order to share the gospel with the Japanese.
So I carry on in my fifty-fifth year of bringing God’s good news to Japan. My wife Lila and I have together accumulated 110 years of our labor of love (muryo hoshi) for Japan’s wonderful people. Our son Ken also works in Japan with a helpline that sends volunteers to needy areas. Our other three sons, Bobb, Jim and Mark, and their wives are involved in various ministries as well.
Indeed, less than one percent of the people in Japan are baptized Christians; however, I am heartened by a survey that showed that thirty-five percent of Japan’s youth (between the ages of 16 and 24) would choose Christianity if they had to choose a religion.
Only eleven percent would choose Buddhism and three percent Shintoism. I am encouraged that Bridal Industry News Weekly said that up to eighty percent of Japan’s future brides choose a Christian wedding instead of a more traditional Shinto one. Why is this so? The future bride will answer, “Because it’s trendy, bright (kakko ii), happy (tanoshi), light (akarui) and positive.” She will also add, “I can understand the preacher when he says, ‘Husbands, love your wives as you love your own body, and respect her.'”
This is Japan’s bright future, to follow the Amaterasu (the “light that brightens heaven”), another name for the “luminous religion” (Ten shu) preached by Nestorian missionaries. Both are another name for the Lord Jesus Christ, “the light of the world,” brought by the Nestorians all the way from seminary in Ctesiphon, Iraq, to Japan’s Sakoshi, Kyoto and Nara some 1,800 years ago.
That “light of the world” is Japan’s only hope for the future.