Pastoral counseling in Japan

Abstract

T HE CULTURE of Japan is as complex as that of America or Europe. Modern Japan is a meeting ground of cultures from east and west. From Asia and the Pacific have come early streams of people and their ethnic culture. Then from China came Buddhist and Confucian waves of culture. And recently have come tidal waves of European and American culture. As these diversities mingle they enrich the surging life of the Japanese people and place their imprint upon the Christian movement in this changing society. Christianity has been welcomed and resisted, assimilated and modified, here as in every other country to which it has come. From the arrival of Portuguese and Spanish merchants, the Catholic missions founded by Francis Xavier in 1549 have nurtured a sturdy faith to meet the persecutions which for 200 years (1639-1859) prohibited their teachings. Protestant missions from 1855 have taken three forms: educational, evangelistic, and social service. By far the greatest response has come to the Christian work of education. Modern Japan from the Meiji Restoration of 1868 has been eager to learn. Christian schools from kindergartens to universities have pioneered the development of modern co-educaPAUL E. JOHNSON