In the Republic of Korea (not counting the authoritiarian/Stalinist DPRK) one out of every four men is a Christian while in Japan it is barely one out of a hundred? Why is this so considering Japan Westernized earlier than Korea and in the 1500s Japan had hundreds of thousands of Catholic converts?
I can’t and won’t give a complete answer, but Japan criminalized christian (at that time, catholic) evangelizing in the late 16th century, so whatever happened in the early parts of that century might not be so relevant later as you paint it to be. Also, in what you might regard as a contradiction, Japan seems to have enjoyed a fairly pluralistic religious culture (or at least dualistic, with Shintoism and Buddhism) for a long time . Don’t know about Korea.
I knew some missionaries who were quite old and had lived in Japan for a long time. They had observed the decline of Christianity in Japan and actually(even though they were both over 80) moved to Russia to start a new ministry.
Anyway, they said that the younger generations born in the 1960’s and on mainly grew up in a country with a thriving economy and out of that, a backlash started against Christianity in general. A huge amount of the younger population rejected Christianity and it declined deeply.
I think that’s about what he said. Just his understanding of the culture, but he did live there for a really long time.
There’s also the issue that Japan, even in the postwar period, was awesomely nationalistic and still is today. In fact, it’s arguably even more nationalistic now than in the 1940’s in the cultural sphere. A lot of people, even young people, are dead-set against things which aren’t “Japanese,” although what that actually means varies by the whims of various mythmakers and opinion leaders. Despite what Superfluous Parentheses says, I doubt that the supposed religious pluralism of japan is much fo an issue. It didn’t stop missionary activities before. What is an issue is that religion is Japan was become something of a joke: people do it, but whether they actually believe is another story. The general decline of Japan goes hat in hand with this.
So, you’re saying it begs the question?
Aside from its economic troubles, Japan has a serious problem with disaffection amongst its youth. The national ideology created by the Meiji reformers to ensure Japan was a unified and strong is a serious cause of this: it created a straightjacket where everything must be viewed through a specific lens. Anyone who simply doesn’t want to think that way has no place. And more and more people are simply dropping out of a society that offers them little to nothing. Even the lens through which Japan views its past is a kind of abusrdity: they constantly confuse the ideals people lived under with the messy realities.
It’s like if people thought La Morte D’Arthur was the actual embodiment of the entire medival social system, and everyone was just as awesome as that, and then tried to create a quasi-totalitarian ideology for modern England* based on it, where the entire social values system was determined by the idealization of long-dead and half-mythical people. Japan was way, waaaay different a century ago. The religious aspect is important: people once believed very much in the religions. Now, they are as much tourism as faith. It may not have been exactly Christian-like religion, but there was room to believe in things. Modern-day Japan has, like Rome, reduced religion to a set of rituals everyone does for social reasons and few believe in.
*I know, I know. La Morte D’Arthur being French. Whatever.
Aside from which, you don’t have to snark. I don’t ask that you share my view, but all you have to do is ask for more on it.
I think he just meant that you should have said hand in hand.
Hat in hand = begging. Is joke, yes?
Such as?
All of the replies have discussed why Japan isn’t Christian, but that’s addressing the question the wrong way 'round. Japan isn’t the outlier here, Korea is.
In Korea, there are more Christian churches than McDonalds. Korean Christian Churches are a combination of social club, variety show, and social control. High school students think that getting ordained and starting their own church is a pretty good living, maybe top 10. After joining a church, the members use a variety of techniques to shame, embarrass, and otherwise force people to attend (and pay $X for each time they attend.) Services are usually 5-7 days a week at all hours, day, night and weekend, and they often include bible study, group meetings, sub-committees, choir, etc. They generally call themselves Methodist, but in general I would classify them as Episcopalian: they have no regard in what services they include, from Catholic Mass to Baptist baptisms. Services appear to be based on the revival model in the US, with a lot of singing, live bands, and energetic services. Christian rock is a regular part of many “services.” If members do not come, some churches have phone trees where at least 3-5 people call that person to persuade them to come. Home visits are also common.
Christians never bombed the living shit out of Korea.
I went to Vietnam in 2005 and was shocked at the number of Christian, and especially Catholic Christian churches around. I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on a Sunday and could hear the church services. I walked to the church and it was overflowing with people. I went through one town where it was church after church after church. I guess the Catholics were just too much for the Communists to overcome. They can be controlled and registered.
I lived in South Korea for a few months and saw all the churches. If you are there, go on top of a tall building or lookout point and see all the red crosses in the skyline.
I have heard that a lot of Koreans are into different faiths at the same time and that it is not impossible in their mind to be a Buddhist believer in Christ, and take what is best or what the adherent likes best about the religion. Of course, the religions don’t like that, but it is an Asian way to spiritually hedge ones bets for the afterlife.
Believe it or not, Pyongyang used to be a center of Christianity in Korea and eastern Asia in the 19th and early 20th Century. Kim Jong Il’s parental grandparents were Presbyterians. Kim Il Sung’s grandfather was a Presbyterian ministers.
And Koreans never attacked America either. What’s the point of either statement? 
This isn’t true. Korea breeds an especially fanatic breed of Protestant Christians who eschew traditional Korean Confucian/Buddhist rituals on the grounds that they are heresy/idol worship.
Catholics in Korea, on the other hand, allow their followers to participate in traditional rituals because they don’t believe it’s about worshiping the dead - it’s about remembering them and respecting their memory.
The Protestant/Catholic divide is very sharp in Korea, and many say that it’s easier for a Catholic to get along with a Buddhist than a Protestant.
Christianity was also illegal in Korea for awhile - before the Japanese occupation anyway. I don’t know if the Japanese also banned it while they were here.
There was a large missionary movement in Korea in the 1880s that converted a bunch of Koreans and built schools and hospitals. Then, after Japan took the country over, Christians were in the forefront of the anti-Japanese resistance, and the Christian churches were some of the strongest anti-Japanese voices. So that helped their reputation.
Japan attacked a military target. We intentionally incinerated civilians on a massive scale.
The point is that Japan had no reason to trust Christians after WWII. That would have been like expecting Americans to start joining the Taliban after 9/11.
That must explain why Japan turned its back on Western society after WWII.
Japan had to engage economically with the west, but it’s still a pretty xenophobic culture.
I’ve heard this explanation before, but it’s always seemed a bit lacking to me. This may be why Christianity got established, but it wasn’t until well after independence that Christianity became widespread in Korea. In 1957 there were roughly 1 million Christians in Korea, still only about 4% of the population.
I found an article that suggests five reasons for the spread:
Only indirectly referenced in these conclusions is something mentioned earlier in the article that I found particularly interesting: