US EditionHidden Christian Faith in Rural Japan Nears Disappearance
- A dwindling group of Hidden Christians continues to practice their unique faith on rural islands in Nagasaki in 2025, worshipping as their ancestors did underground.
- This tradition emerged when, following the early 17th-century prohibition of Christian practices and the removal of overseas missionaries, followers were compelled to conceal their faith under threat of severe punishment.
- Hidden Christians maintain centuries-old rituals, such as secret services and Latin chants called Orasho, using disguised religious icons like the Closet God, a concealed image of Mary and Jesus.
- Government data show the community shrank from tens of thousands in the 1940s to fewer than 100 today, with no baptisms since 1994, and leaders expressing fear they will be the last generation.
- Researchers and believers acknowledge Hidden Christianity will likely become extinct due to aging members, youth migration, lack of clergy, and social changes diminishing communal ties.
25 Articles
25 Articles
Associated Press News
'A huge loss.' In remote Nagasaki islands, a rare version of Christianity heads toward extinction
On the rural islands of Nagasaki a handful of believers practice a version of Christianity that has direct links to a time of samurai, shoguns and martyred missionaries and believers.
The religion of the Christians hidden from Japan once disappeared with the elderly. In the new groups, two families were left on the island of Ikittsuki. The young people left the city and left behind a 400-year-old faith. The secret Christians combined icons with Buddhist symbols. The faith was preserved in the 16th century without priests or churches. They built the strangers for hundreds of years, disappeared in a generation. The children of …
In Japan, kimono is not just a traditional garment: it also communicates. Single women often wear kimonos with long sleeves, which symbolize youth and availability for marriage. Instead, married women wear shorter sleeves, as a way of showing that they have already formed a home. This detail, which can go unnoticed, tells a lot about Japanese culture, where visual language and symbolism remain part of everyday life. With information from Majo Ti…
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