Japan is a country that is about as big as California.  In California, there are 37 million people, and if you’ve ever been to Southern California, you know how crowded the state can be in spots.  In Japan, there are 127 million people…and 80% of the country is mountainous.  That means that most of the 127 million people are jammed into 20% of the country.  To say that Japan is crowded would be an understatement.

Leon and Cheryl Hill live in the greater Tokyo area where 35 million other people reside, making it the world’s most populous metropolitan area.  They happen to live in an area where there are still some peanut and rice fields scattered around, making it feel a bit more rural than urban.  Nonetheless, where they live is still considered a part of the Tokyo metropolitan area and is connected to the heart of the city by the train line.

Because of the Hills’ many relationships, Michelle and I had a unique opportunity to interact with a variety of people including pastors and missionaries, several church members from the ten churches of the Keisen Church Network, and several non-Christian people.  Only 2% of the Japanese people are born-again Christians, so unchurched, non-Christian people were not hard to find.

Their Religious Beliefs and Practices

Shinto and Buddhism are Japan’s two major religions. They have been co-existing for several centuries and have even complemented each other to a certain degree. Most Japanese consider themselves Buddhist, Shintoist or both, but religion does not play a big role in the everyday life of most Japanese people today. The average person typically follows the religious rituals at ceremonies like birth, weddings and funerals, or they may visit a shrine or temple (like the one pictured here from our Tokyo visit) on New Year.  They also may participate occasionally in local festivals that have a religious background to them.

With Shintoism and Buddhism so deeply ingrained in the Japanese culture, it’s not hard to see why so few people have converted to Christianity.  Michelle and I asked one Japanese Christian young lady how she came to faith in Christ.  She said that hearing the gospel message in college (yea Intervarsity!) was the first step, but she told us that she had to first be taught which God the Christians were talking to her about.  For most Japanese people, coming to faith in Christ requires a major transformation in their thinking, and this is one of the reasons why the process to faith in Christ is so slow and so rare.

Their Hospitality and Kindness

It didn’t take long to begin to benefit from the hospitality and kindness of the Japanese.  I’ve flown a lot over the years and never have I been treated as well as I was on the Japanese airline Nippon.  For ten hours, I was showered with endless smiles, service, sustenance, spirits, and shows.  The Japanese flight attendants were incredibly kind and worked tirelessly to make sure that the trip was as enjoyable as possible.  Unlike airlines in the U.S., this airline offered two full meals, desserts, and all the beverages you could drink (alcohol included).  Each seat was equipped with a personal television with over 30 current movies to choose from.  The “flavor” of the flight was just the beginning of the hospitality and kindness we would receive from the Japanese people.

Leon and Cheryl took us to the home of a young man who is confined to a wheel chair.  I’ll tell you more about him in an upcoming post, but he was hit by a truck on his bike 14 years ago.  Twice a day, volunteers come over to his home to assist his parents in several exercises designed to help him regain some of his mental and physical abilities that were lost in the accident.  When we arrived, Michelle and I discovered that the young man’s mother was in bed recovering from surgery.  Unbeknownst to us, she got up from her bed and prepared a traditional Japanese snack for us.  After the exercises were completed, the entire group sat around the table and asked us questions (with the help of Leon and Cheryl’s fine interpretation skills!).  This young man’s parents are not followers of Christ and are in daily need of being served, yet they insisted on warmly serving us.

When we arrived in Los Angeles at the end of our trip, Michelle and I were both shocked by the rudeness of the airport staff as they herded the plane’s passengers through customs.  The treatment we received was nothing like what we all received in Japan (and on the Japanese plane we had just stepped off of).  The Japanese culture of kindness, hospitality, and service impacted me and Michelle deeply.  Hospitality is almost a lost art here in America, and – for sure – the church needs to recover it in order to make a difference in a culture where kindness is not the norm because it just might set us apart and give us a platform for the gospel.

Tomorrow, I’ll tell you about the Christians we met and how the Keisen Church Network is making a real difference in the spiritually dark Japan.