Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement and Healing in Japanâ•Žs Religious Culture

Japan is a land of many contrasts. It is modern yet rooted in tradition. In general, Japanese do not have much interest in religions, yet religions are overflowing in Japan. Christianity is a minority religion in Japan, and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement started there in 1972. In this paper, the author examines the influence of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement on the Japanese, especially through its ministry of healing. Further, he examines the challenges to this work arising from various new religious movements, shamans, spiritual therapists, and sects that promise healing, wealth, and prosperity. Introduction Christianity is a minority religion in Japan. Moreover, after the Aum Shinrikyo terrorist act, most Japanese developed an aversion toward all the religions.1 The Japanese government also formulated strict regulations for all religious organizations.2 However, there is a surprising increase in people seeking spiritual therapists to deal with the problems of their daily lives.3 The focus of many of these spiritual therapists, shamans, and founders of new religious movements and sects is healing. Healing is a commodity for them, and they do their best to market it. However, members of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement, known as charismatics, also pray for healing, so there is great potential for the prayer of healing by charismatics to be misunderstood as a form of spiritual therapy. Thus, charismatics have a great challenge and responsibility to use the charism of healing to educate the people about the Christian understanding of healing. In this paper, we examine the use of charisms among Catholic charismatics. We also examine the various challenges to charismatics that other spiritual therapists pose.