おんばしら

I’m Japanese, and I’m currently a Catholic inquirer. Lately, I’ve been seeing posts on X where Christians and Muslims encourage Japanese people to embrace their respective faiths, presumably out of goodwill. (And I assume it is goodwill, right?) But I think they’re choosing just about the worst possible approach. Fundamentally, that way of sharing your faith simply doesn’t work with Japanese people. I think you’d do well to think of Japanese people as a mirror. Treat them with kindness, and they’ll return that kindness. Treat them with arrogance, and they’ll reflect that arrogance right back at you. So what happens when you dismiss the religions and beliefs Japanese people hold dear? What happens when you try to impose your God on them? They’ll simply mirror that behavior back at you. (And really, wouldn’t you feel angry, hurt, and offended if someone dismissed your God or your faith? Japanese people feel exactly the same way.) Japanese people may seem as though they have no gods, no faith, and no religion. But our faith and prayers are woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. I understand that this might seem very strange to Christians and Muslims. But even as a Japanese person who believes in Christ and worships the Lord as the one true God, I can’t help thinking that this approach to spreading your faith is one disastrous move after another.