A History of Missions

The first known missionary to touch Japanese soil was Francis Xavier, a Spanish Catholic missionary, in the year of 1549. For about the next 100 years, Franciscans and Jesuit missionaries were persistent in spreading the Gospel in the land of Japan, doing whatever it took to further it's growth.  In 1587, all missionaries and foreigners of the land were ordered out. As persecution intensified, in 1624, 50 proclaiming Christians were burned alive in Edo, which is now called Tokyo. In 1638, the official ban of christianity was declared with the death penalty if gone against. By 1640, thousands and thousands of believers had been martyred for the name of Jesus Christ. Even with the ban of Christianity in place, people were still sneaking in and doing whatever they could to spread the Gospel!

One of the reasons that lead to such heavy persecution of Christianity in Japan is that, with European conquest and colonization near the land of Japan, the Shogunate thought, out of fear, that the west was essentially trying to "soften" the Japanese up with their religious & political agendas, so that they would be able to easier conquer and colonize Japan. This lead to over 250 years of complete isolation from the outside world, which did have it's benefits in many areas, though it came at an expensive cost of freedom.

Japan finally reopened it's borders to the world again in 1853, due to the persuasion of Commodore Matthew Perry. Nowadays, Japan no longer fears the west as it once did, and Christianity is no longer banned. Though there's an unfortunate conformity that rules in the land. This conformity causes the Japanese to stick to what they know in terms of worldview and religion, which is what we're trying to change! They aren't necessarily resistant to the Gospel, we just have to address the proper matter to effectively share the Gospel so that it will start to grow in the land!