The United Church of Christ in Japan (UCCJ; ''Nihon Kirisuto Kyōdan'', or ''Kyōdan'' for short) is the largest

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

denomination in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is a union of thirty-three diverse Protestant denominations forcibly merged by the Japanese wartime government on 24 June 1941. The UCCJ, which is a Japanese Independent Church, is a member of the

World Council of Churches The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodo ...

(WCC). Currently, the church has around 195,851 members in 1,725 congregations served by 2,189 pastors.

History

Second World War

Upon promulgation of the Religious Organizations Law that forced the merger of all the Protestant churches in Japan to unite, a declaration of church unity was made at a mass meeting of Christians from all parts of Japan on 17 October 1940. The Kyōdan was established at a Founding General Assembly held at the Fujimicho Church (founded by

Uemura Masahisa was a Japanese Christian pastor, theologian and critic of Meiji and Taishō periods. Early life and education Uemura was the eldest son of Tojuiro and Tei, of the family of hatamoto (rank of samurai). His birth name was Michitarō. Though h ...

) on 24–25 June 1941.

After 1945

With the establishment of religious freedom by the Allied Occupation Forces in 1946, many groups left the Kyōdan to reestablish their prewar denominational identities. The most significant departures were the

Anglican Church in Japan The ''Nippon Sei Ko Kai'' (), abbreviated as NSKK, sometimes referred to in English as the Anglican Episcopal Church in Japan, is the national Christianity, Christian church representing the Province of Japan (, ) within the Anglican Communion. ...

, the Japan Lutheran Church,

Japan Baptist Convention The is a Baptist Christian denomination in Japan. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is an international communion of Baptists, with an estimated 51 million people from 266 member bodies in 134 ...

, Japan Holiness Church, Japan Assemblies of God,

Reformed Church in Japan The Reformed Church in Japan is a confessional Calvinist denomination in Japan. It was formerly a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches, but it chose to suspend its membership. Origin The Reformed Church in Japan was formed in 1946 ...

(the Reformed Church in Japan did not exist as a denomination in the prewar era) plus numerous smaller evangelical churches.

After the 1970s

The controversy had both

theological Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of an ...

and non-theological roots, some tending back into an earlier period. The union's wartime origin and the church's self-acknowledged complicity in the war were called into question. While the 1954

Confession of Faith A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) which summarizes its core tenets. Many Christian denominations use three creeds: ...

, a

doctrinal Doctrine (from , meaning 'teaching, instruction') is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the essence of teachings in a given branch of knowledge or in a belief system. The etymolog ...

statement, clarified the postwar church's identity (there are debates about this), many cite the 1967
Confession of Responsibility During World War II
' as recovering the church's

integrity Integrity is the quality of being honest and having a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and Honesty, truthfulness or of one's actions. Integr ...

, by openly dealing with the church's wartime role. Twenty-six UCCJ missionaries now serve in eleven overseas lands in a variety of ministries, a heritage begun when the first postwar missionary was sent to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

in 1957. United Church of Christ in Japan permits openly gay and lesbian pastors to act as ministers.

Seminaries and theological colleges

* Tokyo Union Theological Seminary *

Doshisha University , also referred to as , is a private university in Kyoto, Japan. Established in 1875, it is one of Japan's oldest private institutions of higher learning, and has approximately 30,000 students enrolled on four campuses in Kyoto. It is one of Japa ...

Kwansei Gakuin University , colloquially known as , is a private, non-denominational Christian coeducational university in Japan. The university offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees to around 25,000 students in almost 40 different disciplines across 11 underg ...

Tohoku Gakuin University is a private university in Sendai, Miyagi, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. It was founded in 1886 under the influence of the Reformed Church in the United States, German Reformed Church missionaries. Miyagi Gakuin Women's University is its sist ...

* Seinan Gakuin University * Seiwa College * Tokyo Bible Seminary * Japan Biblical Theological Seminary * Rural Mission Human Right Seminary 農村伝道神学校

Notable members

* Ryuichi Doi – politician, pastor * Kenji Goto – journalist beheaded by the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS occupied signi ...

, 31 January 2015 *

Shigeru Ishiba Shigeru Ishiba (born 4 February 1957) is a Japanese politician who has served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Liberal Democratic Party (Japan), President of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 2024. He has been a member of ...

– 65th Prime Minister of Japan * Kazoh Kitamori – theologian, pastor, author, professor *

Hideyo Noguchi , also known as , was a prominent Japanese bacteriologist at the Rockefeller University, Rockefeller Institute known for his work on syphilis, serology, immunology, and contributing to the long term understanding of neurosyphilis. Before the Ro ...

– prominent bacteriologist * Masao Takenaka – theologian, professor, author * Manabu Waida – historian, theologian, professor, pastor, author

References

External links

UCCJ website
{{Authority control 1941 establishments in Japan Christian organizations established in 1941 Affirming Christian denominations in Asia