Emerging Christianities in Japan: A Comparative Analysis of Brazilian and Filipino Migrant Churches

  • Kanan Kitani
Chapter
Part of the Palgrave Macmillan’s Christianities of the World book series (CHOTW)

Abstract

To a casual observer Japan appears to be a model of racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious homogeneity. Echoing his predecessor Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, Tarō Asō (in)famously declared during a ceremony at the new Kyushu National Museum in Dazaifu, Fukuoka prefecture, that, unlike any other nation, Japan has “one nation, one civilization, one language, one culture and one race.”1 Asō might perhaps have in mind the fact that of Japan’s population of 127 million, 98.5 percent are ethnic Japanese, the rest being composed of ethnic minorities such as the Ainu and the Ryukyuan peoples, and foreign workers, mainly Brazilians, Peruvians, Chinese, Koreans, and Filipinos.2 Asō’s claim of national unity for Japan can be justified at least since 1947 when Japan adopted a new constitution in favor of a democratic government. Japan’s cultural homogeneity is greatly facilitated by the fact that more than 99 percent of its population speaks Japanese as their first language. Interestingly, presumably because he is a Roman Catholic, Asō did not include Shinto in his list of the things that unite his fellow Japanese, since, as a “religion,” Shinto is arguably an “invented tradition” designed to unite all Japanese despite their different religious affiliations.3

Keywords

Migrant Worker Human Trafficking Christian Church Quezon City Global South 
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Notes

  1. 2.
    Of course, claims of racial and ethnic homogeneity for Japan have not gone unchallenged by both the ethnic minorities themselves and Japan scholars. See George De Vos and Hiroshi Wagatsuma, Japan’s Invisible Race: Caste in Culture and Personality, rev. ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972);Google Scholar
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© Kanan Kitani 2016

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  • Kanan Kitani

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