A Comment from a Homeschooling Dad Concerning Traditional Japanese Culture

Dear children,

When you learn about Japanese traditional culture, you have to keep the following subjects in mind.

DIFFERENT VALUES

Before Christianity entered into Japan, people had different values than us. They were living in a pagan culture and held values which were based on Shintoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Based on these values, avenging deaths of family members was one of the highest virtues in those days. Since they didn�ft have the ethics of monogamy, having concubines was also regarded as a virtue. They didn�ft have a week consisting of 7 days including Sabbath. Their calendar was different from ours (Ours is Gregorian calendar).

ENERGENCE OF DOUBLE STANDARD OF THE JAPANESE MIND-SET

After the Meiji Restoration, the government introduced the Western system including the Gregorian calendar, Western style legal system(mainly based on the Prussian system) that regulated monogamy and prohibited taking revenge and many other pagan customs.

This acute westernization created a complex mind-set of Japanese people.

People had to outwardly conform themselves to this regulation but they persisted on sticking to old values. So there started the double standard on ethics which continues even today.

This double standard often described as �gHon-ne" and "Tatemae.�h "Honne" means �gones real intention,�h and �gTatemae�h means �gpublic principle.�h

Non-Christian Japanese stand on this double standard. Here lies the difficulty in evangelism in Japan. People accept the Gospel message in the sphere of Tatemae, but their actual practice is based on their Honne.

MAJOR PARADIGM SHIFT

Since 17th century Japan experienced two major pardigm shift as follows;

1) Meiji Restoration: The Tokugawa shogunate collapsed and Meiji government was started. This caused a major influx of Western civilization. The Japanese outwardly conformed themselves to Judeo-Christian values. But they mainly imported Liberal Christianity from Germany.

2) Defeat in World War II: From that time Japan has been under the strong influence of the US. Since then Japan has been importing anything from the US. It was for the first time that Japan began to receive Bible-believing Christianity.

CONCLUSION

Japan in the Edo era was a completely different country. There was no equality under the law. Japan before the year 1945 also was a completely different country. Japanese experienced tremendous changes in society, culture, values. Still the Japanese tried to maintain their consistence on their personal level. This resulted in the double standard which is called �gHon-ne" and "Tatemae." They maintained �gJapan-ism�h which is the Japanese civil religion. This causes schizophrenic situations in every aspect of the society even now.

What is the purpose of learning about traditional Japanese culture? There are three major reasons for that.

1) The general grace of the almighty God is obviously manifested in the traditional Japanese culture, such as kimono, Japanese dishes like Sushi, and Kabuki. They are highly sophisticated forms of human culture. God gives us His blessing to us even through these cultures. Enjoy and appreciate them.

2) It is profitable for us to know the traditional Japanese culture because we should know the undercurrent of the Japanese society and people for reaching out to the people and winning them to the Lord Jesus Christ.

3) We are commanded by the Lord �gBring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (II Corinthians 10:5).�h We should win the fruit of the Japanese culture for our Lord while rejecting every antibiblical factor in it.

So, enjoy your learning!

Dad