Western Style Weddings in Japan

Are they Christian?

Why does this wedsite usually refer to them as 'Western style weddings', and not 'Christian style weddings'?

Christianity in Japan

Christianity is seen as a foreign religion in Japan and churches perpetuate this image by having

western style architecture (old Victorian or new American; none of them have much oriental style)
western style hymns (usually old English and modern American; Japanese words but western music)
accompanied by western style instruments (the keyboard is international now, but it evolved from the European organ, the Italian 18th century piano and the earlier 16th century Italian harpsichord. Often other western instruments are used, like the guitar, violin, flute, etc. But never the Japanese koto)
western style attire (dog-collar, gown, and other European trappings, but never the Japanese kimono, hakama, kariginu, eboshi, tabi or kesa)

History can be tedious, but it's worth reading this...

Christianity probably first arrived in Japan around 400 AD with a bunch of Nestorian missionaries.

There were not many Internet blogs around in those days so we don't really know how popular it was. But on 15th August 1549, the Spanish Jesuit priest Francis Xavier is reported to have arrived in Kagoshima and set the ball rolling. He only stayed in Japan for a couple of years but it seems one of his maxims was 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do', and the church took on quite a Japanese flavour by incorporating several Buddhist and Shinto elements into the Christian worship.

The shoguns of the time were pretty peeved about this and understandably saw Christianity as a threatening 'foot in the door' by Iberians for future colonisation; just as Europeans were doing to other countries. Japanese people tend to be quite tolerant of other religions and the government's persecution of Christians was sociopolitical rather than purely on religious grounds. The Christian teaching that an individual's conscience and ethic should dictate their belief was hard to swallow by the Shogunate who demanded unconditional obedience.

Consequently around 280,000 Christians were reportedly tortured and 3,000 to 6,000 martyred. We are not certain how this persecution (fumi-e) took place, and early modern hagiographers were inclined to exaggerate the number of martyrs. However, the crucifixion in 1597 of six missionaries and 20 Japanese converts is recorded in Nagasaki, executed on the orders of Japan's supreme ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi (a.k.a. Taikosama) and a further 51 were executed there in 1622. Nagasaki was certainly a dodgy place for Christians, and elsewhere in Japan they didn't have much freedom. In 1624, fifty were burned alive in Edo. Brass crucifixes were cast at Nagasaki and used with religious pictures to trap Christians. Any suspects who hesitated or refused to trample on these images were assumed to be Christians and punished accordingly. In 1626 Christianity was completely banned, forcing any remaining adherents to hide from inquisitors.

For the next 250 years Japan shut its door to the rest of the world until the Americans pushed their way in with the arrival of Commodore Perry's four black ships at Shimoda on 8th July 1853. Six years later, the Westernisation continued with the arrival of seven Protestant missionaries.

But life was not so easy for them either and the persecutions continued as the Tokugawa anti-Christian edicts were still in force. In 1859, ten or more were tortured to death. A few years later 64 Christians were arrested in Urakami, and in Omura 110 were imprisoned. Sixty of them died of exposure. Things didn't improve much from the 1868 Meiji Restoration. Over 4,000 Christians were shipped to other provinces. Six hundred of them died in exile and it wasn't until 14th March 1873 that international pressure forced the Meiji government to issue a decree withdrawing religious sanctions, allowing the remaining exiles to return home. This was a good start, although complete religious freedom was conspicuously absent from the charter.

In 1908 there were an estimated 960 Protestant missionaries in Japan and they helped establish schools and colleges. Along with trade unions (a western idea introduced by missionaries to help with some of the problems Japan faced during its early industrialisation), western style medicine, hospitals, sanatoriums and orphanages, were founded on western ideas. The association of Christianity with these institutions retained its foreign image.

As mentioned above, the Japanese are remarkably tolerant to other religions. Even so, they are island people and it's natural for island people to perceive anything foreign as a threat. As recently as October 1941, Dr. Roy Byram, his wife and another missionary were arrested for promoting a religion opposed to the state's official religion of Shintoism. The next year, 42 Pentecostal ministers were arrested for teaching the sovereignty of Christ. Was this religious fervour on behalf of the Shintoist? Unlikely, since Shintoism is all about respect. Was it nationalism? Probably. The Japanese authorities no doubt welcomed the apparent 'progress' from adopting Western ways, such as the colleges, trade unions, medicine, etc. But they would also have realised the threat of Western domination - just as America's current quasi-religious fervour for democracy is no more than a front for America Inc.'s control of Middle Eastern resources.

Although the Meiji constitution allowed freedom of religion, Christianity was still technically a crime with a maximum punishment of death. In the Second World War, Shinto was the official religion and all others were crimes. Christians were seen as sympathetic to the Allies and therefore traitors, so persecution increased.

America's moral crusade

At the end of the war in 1945, as part of the surrender, America forced Japan to grant freedom of religion and this became part of the new Japanese Constitution.

(Ironically, as one writer said about the atomic bomb dropped by the Americans on Nagasaki Cathedral in 1945: "the Truman Administration killed more Christians than had ever been killed in Japan during centuries of persecution.")

In all its history, Christianity has been a foreign religion and remains so to this day. Scholars doubt that Christianity can localise itself in Japan as much as Buddhism has done, until the sad day when Japan has completely lost its culture to internationalisation.

Western? Or Christian?

According to the annual survey by Recruit Co., 15 percent of all new marriages in Japan in 2007 had no religious wedding ceremony, 12 percent had Shinto-style weddings (down from 80 percent in the 1960's), leaving a huge 70 percent majority who chose western style weddings. But since most of these couples and their families are presumed not to be believers, these ceremonies are not directed at a Christian congregation.

(A Gallup poll in 2006 revealed only around six percent of Japanese profess to be Christian, and they tend to have wedding ceremonies in their own churches.)

The trappings are there in these Western Style Weddings In Japan; the Bible reading, prayers, hymns, but it is not a time for preaching. The couple are there to get married and would be pretty annoyed if they were bombarded with evangelism. The ceremonies are based on Christian teachings but perceived by the couple primarily as a western style, rather than a Christian style.

... which is why we call them 'Western Style Weddings' and not 'Christian Style Weddings'.

Related discussions:

Are Western Style Weddings in Japan Legal?
Wedding rings? Think again!
- Some myths and truths revealed. Wedding rings have a very pagan origin.
Is your wedding genuine only if you are married in front of The Cross? Nonsense!
- The Cross is more a pagan symbol than a Christian symbol.
Other pagan items adopted by Christians
and the main page Western Style Weddings In Japan