ASIA/JAPAN - Proclamation of faith in the Japanese context

by Paolo Affatato

Tokyo (Fides Agency ) - "In Japan you can clearly see that the focal point for the Christian is the crossroads. The moment one crosses the other's existence, there is room to witness one's faith and proclaim the Gospel. If we carry Jesus in our hearts at that moment, we can share Jesus with the person we meet, touch, pass by or bump into," Andrea Lembo, an Italian from the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), who was appointed auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Tokyo by Pope Francis in September 2023, told Fides. The 50-year-old missionary, former regional superior of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in East Asia, emphasizes that "in the Japanese imagination, beauty is not so much a state as a transition, as is the case with the short ten-day period of cherry blossom, sakura". "In this transition," he notes, "there is room to give the gospel to Japanese culture and society. If we see Christianity as a 'religion', it will not enter the hearts of the Japanese. If, on the other hand, it is a way in which the baptized share the experience of Christ, then we understand that Japan is close to the Gospel, we rediscover Christ, who is already present in this culture," he emphasizes.
The auxiliary bishop talks about the experience of "Shinsei-kaikan", the Catholic cultural center that he has been running since 2021 and which is located in one of the central districts of Tokyo: an open and welcoming space where young university students, including non-Catholics, are offered the opportunity to "walk together" by participating in cultural activities, Bible courses, meetings on art and culture or social issues.
The name of the center means "life and truth". It was founded in 1934 by diocesan priest Soichi Iwashita as a dormitory dedicated to St. Philip Neri: "He understood that Japan, as a highly militarized imperialist country, was heading for a world war and wanted to instil the seeds of Christian spirituality in young people. At that time, the aim was to promote the growth of young people and root them in Christian values. Today, Shinsei-kaikan is open to all people, especially those who are looking for meaning in their lives or who find themselves in difficulties," he reports.
"We are a small meeting place near the large headquarters of the Soka Gakkai, the Buddhist association. We fulfill our mission primarily among young people, in the midst of disturbing social phenomena," he says. One of these phenomena in Japanese society is "cosplay" (from "costume" and "play", the art of dressing up to portray a character from a movie, TV series, cartoon or comic, editor's note). So "young people dress up and live the life of this cartoon character; it becomes a form of escape from a reality, from a very rigid mentality - which puts children into a system of strict rules from elementary school onwards. These people start to live a life that is not real, but becomes real life. They can express what they have inside them and put it into a costume that becomes their new identity, a double life and a network of double contacts. This can lead to psychological and social imbalances".
A second serious phenomenon is suicides, according to the bishop: "The number of suicides is still very high, especially among young people, it is an incredible scourge: we have reached 36,000 per year, a very high number". The phenomenon of the "hikikomori" - the young person who locks themselves in their room and never goes outside - is often the antechamber to depression and suicide, he explains: "The root is the fear of society, the fear of not being successful in life, or a relationship problem that you have suffered at school, like bullying. I call this the 'anorexia of Japan', a psychological anorexia, i.e. the cutting off of all the basic ties of life.
Bishop Lembo explains: "We have accompanied so many of these young people, and we have to work very hard to bring them out of their shells, to spend days with them, to talk to them and hope that they will at least want to do something outside their own homes. They are very scared and exhausted. Recently, one of our teenagers took his own life a few days before Christmas. The son of famous doctors, whose older sister was also studying medicine, he had to study out of a kind of moral obligation to his family. He made it to graduation in March last year and then collapsed. The boy was supposed to be baptized at Christmas, but it didn't happen. These are sad stories. But even out of such tragedies, the Lord can give new hope to families: the parents began a path of psychological support and also a deepening of the Christian faith and were baptized."
The center was transformed from a dormitory into a youth cultural center that offers evening courses as an introduction to the Christian faith and the Bible. About 30 years ago, the center also started offering courses for adults and today - as the bishop explains - the institution is active in four basic areas: "The first is Christian education for young people and adults, we talk about the catechism and the history of the church; another pillar is the study of Japanese society: we invite academics and sociologists to present the challenges and general issues that are of interest to everyone; there is also the area of Christian culture, which touches on art and sacred music: I hold a course on 'Art and the Bible', for example, which attracts a lot of interest; finally, there is the area of Christian heritage, which is the approach, study and reflection on the Church Fathers."
The center is open from Tuesday to Sunday and offers morning and afternoon classes. Every evening there is an activity dedicated to students being together, such as a prayer, a meeting or a meal together. "Shinsei-kaikan" aims to be a place of learning, friendship and relaxation. "We accompany young people to rediscover the beauty of their hearts, to experience the joy of fraternity, to promote trust in people and balanced development. On this path, we present the person of Jesus through the stories of the Gospel, we proclaim his message of love".
At a legal level, the center is not directly subordinate to the diocese. Thanks to the intuition of former Tokyo Auxiliary Bishop Kazuhiro Mori, who developed the center, a different form was chosen: "Mori preferred and recommended making it a social institution, and we were able to obtain this certification from 2021, which gives it a far-reaching possibility of openness and welcome.
According to Bishop Lembo, the center remains "a work of evangelization of culture, in culture, with the means of today's culture. We are also online, we have social media. The way is to bring the faith into a dialog with Japanese culture, a great culture that has the substrate of Shintoism, which is essentially life, in which there is a whole relationship with nature, a relationship with beauty. There is also Buddhism, which stands for silence, cleanliness, kindness and patience. In Japan, look at the finesse and art of Zen gardens, a world full of meaning and a true spiritual experience. Christianity moves in this context in order to be able to proclaim the Gospel. That is why one of the fundamental points is art, and we are building a bridge to Japanese art". The Auxiliary Bishop concludes: "In this Japanese finesse can also lie the Christian 'field of tension', the love of Christ on the cross. Jesus can be conveyed using Japanese categories. At the 'Shinsei-kaikan' center, we walk a path together. And on this path, every person can discover that there is something else, that there is Christ.
(PA) (Fides Agency 27/6/2024)

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