More on Jesus in Japan

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Kevin Kelleher says: "All this discussion of Christianity in Japan reminds me of the town of Herai in Aomori Prefecture, not far from where I once spent a year.

"In a truly bizarre twist on the life of Jesus, the town has two large crosses in a small, out of the way park – one for Jesus, who is supposedly buried there, and one for Isukiri, his brother.

"It turns out, according to local lore, it was Jesus' brother who was crucified so that Jesus could escape and move to Japan, where he lived for many years.

"One reason there aren't many Christians in Japan is that they suffered terrible persecution. Many retreated to this remote corner, where they lived and Japanified their savior. In the process, they kind of stripped out the central idea of the religion, the resurrection.

"A good summary is in this Fortean Times story."
Link (Thanks for the image of Sanders Claus, Rob Carrol!)

Update: In 2003, Joi Ito wrote about Christmas in Japan.

Did you know that Japanese families will be lining up in front of Kentucky Fried Chickens today to get their chicken for Christmas? I DO know where this comes from. When my friend Shin, introduced KFC to Japan, the ad campaign showed wealthy American families all eating friend chicken for their holiday feast. KFC was marketed as an upscale food of the privileged in America. This triggered a tradition in Japan for families to eat friend chicken on Christmas.

Link

Reader comment: Pat says:
Between 1-2% of Japanese consider themselves Christian. The other 98% don't
know much about the religion (thankfully!) except a vague relationship to
Christmas: a bright, fun holiday for kids and lovers. There is next to zilch
awareness of Easter. It probably came down to trying to find a sellable
angle for a movie that had virtually no appeal at the Japanese box office.
(Which, may I remind you, is the #1 overseas market for US films.)

Another Japanese Christmas 'tradition' is the ubiquitous strawberry
shortcake, which Japanese believe graces every Christian's table on said
day, to go with the Kentucky Fried Chicken. A single woman of 26 used to be
considered past her 'sale date' (like a Christmas cake on Dec 26), and so a
new pejorative entered the language.