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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

Latter-day Saints, religion, Japan, proselytism

College

Harold B. Lee Library

Abstract

Despite missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sharing the Gospel in Japan since 1901, its membership reaches only a little over 128,000, which is approximately one in every 1000 people living in Japan. There have been numerous theories concerning the relatively slow progress of the Church there. However, as I analyzed interviews of Japanese converts, I noticed a common theme in each of their stories; each convert had mentioned that before their conversion to the Gospel, they viewed religion to be something strange and suspicious. Having been born and raised in Japan, I agree that this is a perspective that most Japanese people have concerning religion as a whole-with the exception of Buddhism and Shintoism which play such a big part in Japanese history and have naturally been engraved as a part of the culture. This suggests that the difference between Western and Japanese perspectives on religion may be responsible for the Japanese people’s reluctance to embrace the doctrines of the Church. This thought made me curious to know the relationship between religious prejudice and openness towards the Church in different countries. Through this research we explored the viewpoint of religion as seen by Japanese society and aimed to identify its effects on the acceptance of Christianity, specifically the teachings of the Church.

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