Loss of community in Japan

Tetsushi Sakamoto already had a challenging job in Japan’s cabinet, but it just got harder. Sakamoto, the Minister of State for Regional Revitalization and Minister of State for Measures for Declining Birthrate, is now also serving as Japan’s first Minister of Loneliness. This new office is an holistic effort by the current administration to curb the recent spike in suicides.¹ The Japanese government recognizes loneliness as the central issue leading to disturbingly high rates of suicide, hikikomori (acute social withdrawal), dying alone (kodokushi), and other societal ills that plague Japan in the modern era.

All of these societal woes flow from a single reality—the loss of community in modern Japan. The term muen shakai was introduced in an NHK documentary in 2010 and describes modern Japan as a “no-relationship society.” My colleague Dr. Takanori Oba (who first introduced me to the concept) describes this as the cutting off of blood ties, territorial ties, and company ties, which he associates largely with a growing loss of religious connection. Muen shakai developed in postwar Japan as society rapidly industrialized, urbanized, and individualized.

From a Western perspective, Japan may not seem to be overly individualized. There remains a strong collectivist culture, and as Matthew Taylor of Kinjō Gakuin University points out, “Muen shakai will seem especially striking in a country known (and not too long ago) for its filial piety and strong social ties.”² However, despite this history and cultural tradition, Japanese citizens are increasingly isolated from real, meaningful human interaction. The population in Japan is shrinking almost everywhere besides the biggest cities where young people move for work and entertainment. Work requires relationships, but these are contractual and the demands of company work often create obstacles to friendships, dating, marriage, and starting families. Lifelong employment is no longer the norm, which leads to greater social mobility but also less rootedness. Entertainment, which could seem to combat loneliness, is increasingly consumed alone and tends to exacerbate the isolation.

The Minister of Loneliness faces a seemingly impossible challenge as the pandemic further isolates and leads to more suicides, more people dying alone, and more work for the special cleaning people (tokushu seisō gyōsha) who care for the forgotten dead.

The role of missionaries

A no-relationship society poses major challenges for Japan’s future, but missionaries are not surprised. Many missionaries knew of these societal woes prior to learning of Japan’s spiritual needs, and many have been able to minister well to lonely Japanese neighbors through ministries focused on building community. At the same time, it is important to see that, even as missionaries have been able to serve within muen shakai, we may also inadvertently reinforce it. In certain ways, missionaries have embraced this trend more than resisted it.

I will observe a few potential connections rather than offer a thorough critique. Just because our activities may contribute to a larger societal problem does not mean that we forsake our callings. However, if our activities may be contributing to one of the larger social problems facing Japan, it is helpful to reflect on our approaches. I will look at three examples of how missionaries may reinforce the loss of connection in Japan. Each of these deserves more attention for true reflection, and my hope is to encourage that kind of thoughtfulness.

Evangelism and individualism

A common approach to sharing the gospel requires Japanese to be converted to individualism first and Christianity second. Missionaries to Japan from the West often unknowingly possess an anthropology (an understanding of how humans work) of individualism. We became Christians when someone led us to the point of a personal decision for Christ. We became missionaries when we sensed a personal call to go. And we have been taught that personal freedom is perhaps the greatest fruit of the gospel. However, by living in Japan, many of us now realize that our anthropology is largely cultural and not entirely biblical. That’s not to say the Bible does not uphold the importance of the individual, but it’s not the same as the Western anthropology of individualism.

When Western missionaries share the gospel, we instinctively press our Japanese friends for an individual decision. We imagine the disciples independently dropping their nets to follow Jesus, but perhaps forget that these disciples had families and coworkers (Mark 1:16-20). We remember the call of Christ for disciples to leave brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers (Mark 10:29) and perhaps overlook that the first mass healing in Jesus’ ministry began with healing Peter’s mother in-law (Mark 1:29-33). Following Christ certainly involves an individual forsaking all to follow Christ, but within Scripture, as theologian John Frame has observed, “[The] principle is that God is gathering families, not just individuals, into his kingdom.”³

Overly prioritizing the city

Missionaries to Japan have mostly served the largest cities. As of 2019, a large majority of missionaries were serving within the Tokaido megalopolis of Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka.⁴ This is partially practical because a majority of the Japanese population lives in these metropolitan areas. However, there can be a tendency to aggrandize the city based on strategy (cities as centers of cultural influence) and even eschatology (the biblical narrative moves from a garden to a city).

While the city is populous and plays an important role both now and in the future, the modern industrialized city is not the New Jerusalem, and it does not exist in a healthy symbiotic relationship with the countryside. Rather, the ravenous modern city strips the countryside of people and natural resources as Hayao Miyazaki loves to depict in his animated epics. It may be that culture trickles down to the country from the city, but it is also true that the modern city is a consuming vacuum that takes far more than it gives. Muen shakai has developed with the creation of giant cities where people are drawn to be lonely together.

For missionaries, the potential for impact in smaller towns could prove to be surprisingly strategic to resist the trend of losing connection. The populations are smaller, but social ties are more likely to remain intact, and the pace of life allows for more human connection. The government also wants to see revitalization in these regional areas, and this could provide more opportunities for outsiders to find a place to serve the community.

Liturgies of loneliness

Lastly, there is the issue of our own liturgies of loneliness. Here I follow James K. A. Smith’s understanding of liturgies as “rituals of ultimate concern.”⁵ Most of us are from countries that have some version of muen shakai at work. The first country to appoint a Minister of Loneliness was not Japan, but the United Kingdom.⁶ Suicide rates have been steadily rising in America for over a decade, even before COVID-19.⁷ We are not immune to the effects of urbanization, industrialization, and addictive entertainment that isolates us from organic community. When missionaries come to Japan to minister to lonely people, we bring our own loneliness and discover more loneliness upon arriving. Outside of ministry time, it is far too easy to “doomscroll” Twitter,⁸ hop on Instagram for a dopamine hit, or “Netflix and chill” in hopes that our loneliness will go away. But our rituals for escaping loneliness actually make us lonelier and less empowered to challenge the loss of connection.

A no-connection society provides a context for us instead to explore the Christian discipline of solitude even as we seek to encourage community. Richard J. Foster helpfully contrasts loneliness and solitude: “Loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment.”⁹ By learning to practice solitude and silence, we forsake our coping mechanisms in search of inward gospel renewal, making us ready for deeper experiences of community. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer exhorted, “Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.”¹⁰

The hope in all of this reflection is to spur us on to more missional consideration and discussion so that missionaries might better transform the situation surrounding muen shakai and not simply make the most of it.

1. “Tetsushi Sakamoto to take on loneliness and isolation in new role,” The Japan Times, https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/02/12/national/loneliness-isolation-minister/ (February 12, 2021).
2. Matthew Taylor, “Not with a Bang but a Whimper: Muen Shakai and Its Implications,” Anthropoetics: The Journal of Generative Anthropology XVIII, no. 1, http://anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1801/1801taylor/ (Fall 2012).
3. John Frame, Salvation Belongs to the Lord: An Introduction to Systematic Theology (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing Company, 2006), 281.
4. See “Missionaries in Japan: A snapshot in space and time,” Japan Harvest (Winter 2019), 26–27.
5. James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009), 86.
6. Tara John, “How the World’s First Loneliness Minister Will Tackle ‘the Sad Reality of Modern Life,’” Time, https://time.com/5248016/tracey-crouch-uk-loneliness-minister (April 25, 2018).
7. “America’s suicide rate has increased for 13 years in a row,” The Economist, https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/01/30/americas-suicide-rate-has-increased-for-13-years-in-a-row (January 30, 2020).
8. Doomscrolling: The act of spending an excessive amount of screen time devoted to the absorption of dystopian (or scary) news.
9. Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth (San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 1998), 96.
10. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (London: SCM Press LTD, 1965), 57.