Christianity in Japan - Notable Japanese Christians

Notable Japanese Christians

During the first Catholic missions from the 17th century, several high ranked people converted including Dom Justo Takayama and Hosokawa Gracia. Among the original twenty-six martyrs of Japan, Paulo Miki is the best known. Catholics venerate him as one of the patron saints of Japan.

Christianity in the Meiji-period saw several major educators and Christian converts as follows:

• Kanzo Uchimura (内村鑑三, Kanzō Uchimura?) (1861–1930), a Protestant, a headmaster of a head of the First Higher School. He was also the founder of Nonchurch movement, one of the earliest indigenous Japanese Christian movements. His autobiography Why have I become a christian? (余は如何にして基督信徒となりし乎, yo wa ika ni shite Kirisuto shinto to narishi ka?), focusing on his conversion influenced young generations in those days.
• Joseph Hardy Neesima (Jō Nījima) (新島襄, Niijima Jō?) (1843–1890), a Protestant and the founder of Doshisha University.
• Nitobe Inazō (新渡戸稲造, Nitobe Inazō?) (1862–1933), a Protestant and the founder of Tokyo Woman's Christian University.
• Umeko Tsuda (津田梅子, Umeko Tsuda?) (1864–1929), a Protestant and the founder of Joshi Eigaku Juku (today Tsuda College).

In the 20th century, two major contributors to Protestant Christian theology emerged in Japan: Kosuke Koyama (小山晃佑, Koyama Kōsuke?), who has been described as a leading contributor to global Christianity, and Kazoh Kitamori (北森嘉蔵, Kitamori Kazō?), who wrote The Theology of the Pain of God (神の痛みの神学, kami no itami no shingaku?). Social rights activist and author Toyohiko Kagawa ((賀川豊彦 Kagawa Toyohiko?), who was nominated for both the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Prize in Literature, has also become known outside Japan.

Mitsuo Fuchida (淵田美津雄, Fuchida Mitsuo?) (3 December 1902–30 May 1976) was a Captain in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service and a bomber pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy before and during World War II. After World War II ended, Fuchida became a Christian and an evangelistic preacher. In 1952, Fuchida toured the United States as a member of the Worldwide Christian Missionary Army of Sky Pilots. Fuchida spent the rest of his life telling others what God had done for him around the world. In February 1954, Reader's Digest published Fuchida's story of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He also wrote and co-wrote books including, From Pearl Harbor to Golgotha (aka From Pearl Harbor to Calvary). His story is told in God's Samurai: Lead Pilot at Pearl Harbor (The Warriors).

Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝, Sugihara Chiune?, 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. In 1935 he converted to Orthodox Christianity while serving in China as a diplomat. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland or residents of Lithuania. Sugihara wrote travel visas that facilitated the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's life. In 1985, Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations for his actions.

The 20th century also saw two Christian novelists of renown: Ayako Miura (三浦綾子, Miura Ayako?, 1922–1999) was a Protestant writer known for her works, one of the most influential being Shiokari Pass (塩狩峠, shiokari tōge?, 1968). Shusaku Endo (遠藤周作, Endō Shusaku?) was a Catholic novelist renowned for his works focusing on Christianity in Japan, including Silence (沈黙, chinmoku?).