Japan has had three Catholic prime ministers, and its current empress was raised and educated in the faith. How did a non-Christian nation come to foster more Catholic leaders than the United States, particularly when Protestantism is said to define Christianity in Japan and Catholicism is believed to be but a fleeting element of Japan’s so-called Christian century?

Far from being a relic of the past – something brought to Japan by sixteenth-century missionaries such as Francis Xavier and then forgotten – Catholicism offered, and continues to provide, an authentic way for Japanese believers to shape their cultural identities. This volume documents the appeal of Catholicism, not only among farmers and fishers but also among scientists, diplomats, novelists, and members of the imperial household who have found in Catholicism an alternative way to keep “tradition” and negotiate modernity since the late nineteenth century.

Kevin M. Doak's profile page

Kevin M. Doak is the Nippon Foundation Chair in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Georgetown University. He is co-editor of the Journal of Japanese Studies and sits on the executive board of the Society for Japanese Studies.

Contributors: James R. Bartholomew, Kevin M. Doak, Ann M. Harrington, Mariko Ikehara, Mark R. Mullins, Toshiko Sunami, Mark Williams, Yoshihisa Yamamoto, and Yoshimitsu Yoshihiko (with Charles C. Campbell)

At the end, we have been helped to better understand how Japan, after a long and bitter war, managed to enter the community of democratic nations harmoniously...The vast amount of data gathered together in these pages and the thoughtful commentary make this book a most useful resource.

Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 67, No. 1

Makes a much-needed contribution to the study of Christianity in Japan...Xavier's Legacies is a critical contribution and a must-read for serious students ofAsian social and religious studies in the modem period.

Missiology