Recently YouTube has recommended to me videos by Christian missionaries that claim to answer the question “Why does Japan reject Christianity?” but they give nonsense answers like “Japanese people just haven’t heard the gospel yet so we Christians should go proselytize to them!”
TLDW: Japan banned Christianity and expelled all foreigners except the Dutch and Chinese in the 17th century after a century of tolerating Christians because European Christians tried to colonize Japan (they even bought and sold Japanese slaves) and Japanese converts to Christianity threatened to disrupt the social hierarchy. Japan legalized Christianity in the 19th century after it was forced by the USA to reopen its ports to foreign trade with other countries, but promoted State Shinto as something like a religious institution but even larger in scope and suppressed other religions in Japan. Japanese people turned to new religions or decided to forgo membership in organized religions while still practicing some religious rituals in the late 20th century onwards, as their material conditions improved during the period of rapid economic growth.
According to surveys in the past two decades, a large minority of Japanese people now are convinced atheists, many more do not belong to a particular religion, and only about 1% of people in Japan are Christians. Basically, Japanese nationalism, secularism, and materialism pushed back against Christianity at various times, and now most people just aren’t interested in Christianity, despite knowing a lot about western culture and Christianity, and even getting married in Christian style weddings.
by TadaDaYo