Rev. Ron Wallace remembers Japan well from the 1970s, when there were 2,000 missionaries working in that country. He calls those the glory days for mission work in Japan. He was a missionary there from 1976-1981 (and was one of nine Canadian Presbyterians there).
“Japan was one of our major mission fields, but those days are long gone,” said Wallace, the PCC's associate secretary for International Ministries. He returned there last March for the Japan North America Mission Forum. Joining him on behalf of the Presbyterian Church were Rev. Daniel Cho, minister at Rexdale, Etobicoke, Ont., and convener of the Life and Mission Agency Committee, and Reuben St. Louis, Youth in Mission coordinator. Five other denominations, all of which have had close ties to Japan for decades, also attended, including the United Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Working through the Korean Christian Church in Japan and the United Church of Christ in Japan (or Kyodan), the PCC has been a mission partner with Japan since 1927, and was active until a few years ago when the last two missionaries returned home.
“Priorities for mission are different,” Wallace continued. “There aren't as many people who want to go teach English to healthy, middle-class Japanese students; they think they should go teach those living in poverty in the south.”
Budget restrictions are another reason for the drop in missionary participation. According to Wallace, while missionaries are paid by Japanese schools (most mission work involved teaching), the time, money and staff needed at home to administer large mission programs are becoming increasingly difficult to come by.
“So the forum asked the question, how can we be involved in mission when we have empty hands? How can we maintain the relationship in these changed circumstances?
“I guess it depends on how you view mission.”
Wallace said there was much discussion about how Japan's society is aging, along with the church. “They're having a hard time reaching out and including youth in the church. They're a lot like us, but even more so. They want missionaries to help them attract young people.”
Wallace said some chaplains have thriving youth groups, though once the students graduate, they drift away from the church. To curb this, the chaplains are thinking about starting churches for young people, so graduates can attend a church where they feel at home and can find others their age.
Despite weakening ties, there are personal relationships that still exist, and such relationships will continue through exchanges, consultations, and participation in special events (like the KCCJ's 100th anniversary in 2008, and the 150th anniversary of Protestant mission in Japan a year later). The exchange of missionaries and funds, however, are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
“It's interesting to go back and to see the changes since [I was there in] 1981,” said Wallace, “but it's sad to see the expressed need by the Japanese churches, and the unwillingness and inability to respond to that need in a significant way.”
