Japan exports ‘Christian’ weddings to East Asia

I attended more than 900 weddings in Japan during. Actually, I officiated at more than 900 weddings and have had my hand in several thousand.

I am an ordained minister. I can speak Japanese. And the Japanese love to do things 'western style.'

Calling the weddings 'Christian' is a stretch. Yet, I did counseling with each couple I married and explained the content of the wedding to them the best I could.

I taught other prospective ministers how to do the same.

But…not everone in Japan…make that most wedding operators don't give a hoot. The wedding planners see offering services in a chapel environment with a foreigner stumbling over the native language as 'cool.'

I was once told to not speak Japanese so fluently because it spoiled the effect of being married by an outsider. I refused.

Business was good for the wedding companies. Our first year there were 300 some weddings offered at the VIP Co. About one-third were western style (me) and the rest were Japanese style.

Within three years, about 80% were conducted by me and the local Shinto priest was angry because business dropped.

More wedding halls sprang up, and I began training other ministers.

Fast forward about 10 years and now Japanese wedding companies are wanting to export the business to China, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Japan is a country where there are more believers of different religions than there are people in the country. They might not find citizens of other countries so eager to embrace this contradiction.

What do you think?

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