Is this true, seiyuu becomes Jehovah's Witness?

[Njr Scrawl]

A friend of mine who is a Jehovah's Witness says that a well known Japanese lady seiyuu/anime personality, who has had a magazine named after her, has given it all up to become a Jehovah's Witness.

Can't find anything on Google. Does anyone know about such a person?

[Harafan]

I don't know any specifics, but it wouldn't surprise me.

I don't know if this has changed, but when I was living in Japan, the statistics said that roughly 10% of the Japanese population is Christian...however, most converted Japanese are not Christian for life.

Ever since the Meiji restoration, it seems to have been a trend for young people to take on the trappings of western life (including adopting Christianity) while in their teens, twenties and thirties, but by their late thirties, they begin to shed the western influences in favor of more traditional Japanese style, clothing...and religion.

So it is quite possible that a seiyuu was converted to the Jehovah's Witnesses and that it got a lot of publicity at the time, and it is also just as possible that a few years later that seiyuu quietly dropped out of the religion.

I know a few people on missions to Japan, and they're always elated about the number of Japanese they can convert in their first year. After several years they have all come home disenchanted.

Harafan

After some pursing on Japanese sites, I came up with Michie Tomizawa (voice of Sailor Mars, among many, many others). She retired in late 2001 (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?id=1122). With some more digging around, I found (via Wayback Machine) an extinct site that posted her churches newsletter (http://web.archive.org/web/20030621203503/www2.gol.com/users/tccyuri/j/article.htm) and she has an essay dated 12/16/01 (http://web.archive.org/web/20030608144950/www2.gol.com/users/tccyuri/j/shuho/jshu1216htm.htm) signed with her post-marriage name, Michie Itou.

In the essay, she outlines her life and how she found happiness in Christianity. I don't have time to translate everything, but she pretty much says that despite all her successes and fame, she felt lonely and uneasy inside, so she turned to the church.

I don't think she ever had her own magazine, but she was probably on the covers of a lot of seiyuu magazines. So, it could be her that your friend was talking about.

Just to add some more trivia... Noriyuki Yamahana (aka HANAKO), a manga author whose series "If I See You In My Dreams" became an anime (and has an R1 release, I think) and has had several other series after that (Akane, Tenshi/Himitsu no Rouge), recently quit his manga profession for the same religious reason. His comics ran in one of the most popular magazines in Japan, Young Jump, big brother to Shonen Jump. At the end of his last manga volume published a few months ago (the story abruptly stops), he has a similar essay where he writes about re-evaluating his life after going to church and realizing that there was something more important.

[Njr Scrawl]

Thanks for the info, I did not know Michie Tomizawa had become a Christian /images/graemlins/happy.gif

There was a Japanese manga artist (who might have been involved with animé as well) called Yumiko Fujii. She became a JW but back in 1988.

[Illusion]

I'm not sure if you're aware, but Christianity and Jehovah Witness are two completely separate and vastly different beliefs. I was aware that Tomizawa Michie had became religious, but since she turned to Christianity, it can't her that njr scrawl is talking about. Unless njr scrawl's friend got confused...?

Also, although Tomizawa-san "retired" in 2001, she was in the 2004 anime series Yuugo the Negotiator.

[GanChan]

Does she mention in her essay whether she turned directly to Christianity or looked at other spiritual outlets first? Just curious, since Japan doesn't exactly have a steeple on every street and it isn't likely that one would be surrounded by Christian friends or other influences.

[Mr. Nail Bat]

[ QUOTE ]
Illusion said:
I'm not sure if you're aware, but Christianity and Jehovah Witness are two completely separate and vastly different beliefs.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is getting pretty close to the edge but... Jehovah's Witnesses do believe in Jesus and use the New Testament, so by any reasonable definition, that should make them part of Christianity.

Here's the translation of her essay. I took some liberties, but hopefully nothing to egregious.

-----

It's Christmas already, isn't it. What kind of day is Christmas for you? When I was in elementary school, I wasn't a Christian but on Christmas night, we would be gathering at church. I loved the lighting of candles, the singing of hymns, the saying of prayers, and listening to the pastor. Even in all the seriousness, I felt the love from God; Christmas was truly a special day out of the year. But still, having seen Jesus Christ hung from the cross in the front of the altar, my child-like mind always wondered, "How pitiful, how cruel! Why did such a terrible thing happen to this person?"

When I was 18, I went to Tokyo with the dream of becoming a voice actress. In half a year, I debuted on a NHK Educational TV Program as an "older sister." After being on numerous TV dramas, movies, anime, radio, etc., I realized I was on the road to stardom. From then on, my passion, which started as a genuine desire to grant children their dreams and wishes, was controlled by pride, ego, and arrogance. My success was my power. I want to get more respect. I want to be praised. I want to be noticed. I want to get the things I desire. Me! Me! Me! I reached the point where I worked to satiate by own greed.

That motivation wasn't limited to just work, it was the same with love. A man who I thought was a "plus." A man who I though had a good life. The results of my selfish standards were incompatibilities, impropriety, breakups... Even though on the outside my life appeared like it was filled with glory, on the inside I was isolated and insecure. I had lost all hope. Having hurt myself and others, my life was like choosing to live on the road to self-destruction.

The person who guided me from wandering in the darkness to the path of Christianity is someone I honor and love -- my husband Akira Itou [彰 = Akira?]. I started going to church and with the desire to want to know the meaning of Jesus and the Cross and through learning about the bible from many members, I met God and was able to understand the Truth.

Jesus's Crucifixion, which I had wondered about as a child, was for my sake. They put Jesus on the Cross for my sins. The Crucifixion was to forgive and save me. And so the Crucifixion was proof of His love for me.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (John 3:16-17) [I went to the source, KJV, for this paragraph]

And so, I became a Christian two years ago. Although I am not worthy of being saved, through God's compassion I was forgiven. I was given many friends who share their love with me and was even given a wonderful celebration -- a wedding. By knowing God, I was lead from the darkness to light and now I'm peaceful, happy, and am brimming over with hope. Everyday I give thanks for God's love and His blessings. Being able to walk beside Him is the greatest happiness.

December 25th, the Holy Day. That's when God put his only child, Jesus, on this earth to save us. The day that we offer our gratitude and celebration for the nativity of that child, Jesus Christ.

On this Christmas, won't you be reading the Bible?

The message of God's love is written in the Bible. When you're touched by the love of the Cross and a miraculous bell chimes in your heart, that's God's ultimate Christmas present to you.

Michie Itou

[jmarken]

[ QUOTE ]
Geoduck said:
[ QUOTE ]
Illusion said:
I'm not sure if you're aware, but Christianity and Jehovah Witness are two completely separate and vastly different beliefs.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is getting pretty close to the edge but... Jehovah's Witnesses do believe in Jesus and use the New Testament, so by any reasonable definition, that should make them part of Christianity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes and no. The JWs share with the Mormons the distinction of being "Christian" religions that aren't really accepted as sibling religions by the mainstream Christian denominations. There are certainly plenty of doctrinal differences, which I won't get into here, but I'd still say that Illusion was more right than wrong, especially in saying that they are "vastly different".

Here's the thing though, most Japanese don't make that distinction. They have enough trouble with the difference between Protestants and Catholics, let alone between the mainstream denominations and other more modern Bible-based religions like the Mormons and the JWs. There are also a handful of very small vaguely Bible-based cults in Japan (just as there are elsewhere). So when someone in Japan describes themselves as "Christian", it's very possible they mean something slightly different than what a Westerner would mean if they self-identified as "Christian".

[Mr. Nail Bat]

[ QUOTE ]
jmarken said:
Yes and no. The JWs share with the Mormons the distinction of being "Christian" religions that aren't really accepted as sibling religions by the mainstream Christian denominations.

[/ QUOTE ]

Being a Mormon, that probably explains my point of view on the subject. And I shall cease from further posts on the matter and tiptoe away from this particular minefield. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[jmarken]

[ QUOTE ]
Geoduck said:
Being a Mormon, that probably explains my point of view on the subject. And I shall cease from further posts on the matter and tiptoe away from this particular minefield. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, that does add extra context to your post. /images/graemlins/happy.gif

For the record, and I hope my post didn't imply otherwise, I wasn't trying to say one or another Bible-based religion is more "real" than any other, just that there is that dissensus about which religions are really Christian and which aren't. Of course, as a Mormon you know that, and I'm not telling you anything new.

My real point, of course, was that in Japan it gets even more confusing, since there are distinctions that most of us grew up with, even if we didn't grow up in religious households, that are foreign to most Japanese. And having said that, I'll say again for the benefit of any new-timers to this forum that, regarding the ban on political and religious discussion, we've always quietly run an exception for this forum. After all, you can't really advance your understanding of a country and its language and culture without touching on its politics or religion(s). And therein lies the caveat behind the exception: discussion of politics or religion is OK here, but it has to be relevent to a discussion of some aspect of Japanese language or culture. For all that this thread is just dripping with religion, I'd say that (so far, anyway) it's absolutely fine.

[ QUOTE ]
GanChan said:
Does she mention in her essay whether she turned directly to Christianity or looked at other spiritual outlets first? Just curious, since Japan doesn't exactly have a steeple on every street and it isn't likely that one would be surrounded by Christian friends or other influences.

[/ QUOTE ]

No really, but I did run into quite a few Christian missionaries in Japan. The common way of attracting people was to offer free English conversation lessons and then slowly work on people who came to the lessons. This is a method I also see used here in the States. Lots of adverts up for free ESL lessons and when you follow up they often turn out to be religious group.

[Njr Scrawl]

Jehovah's Witnesses are closer to Quakers than Mormons. People get confused because JWs & Mormons are the ones that come knocking on your door.

JW's aren't liked much in Japan being pacifist (like Quakers), but they have a following & do good charity work in disaster areas. They were helping after the last big Japanese earthquake (Kyoto?) & are in Asia helping tsunami hit areas.

[Njr Scrawl]

That's really sweet /images/graemlins/catgirl0.gif

Michie was already on my dream-wish list of seiyuus I'd like to meet (with Kotono Mitsuishi & Hiromi Tsuru). Now she's top /images/graemlins/shy00000.gif

[witega]

[ QUOTE ]
jupiterstar said:

December 25th, the Holy Day. That's when God put his only child, Jesus, on this earth to save us. The day that we offer our gratitude and celebration for the nativity of that child, Jesus Christ.


[/ QUOTE ]

This paragraph would seem to indicate that while Michie Itoh is a Christian, she is not the one referred to in the thread title-question. Jehovah's Witnesses are strongly against the observation of holy days.

[ QUOTE ]
witega said:
This paragraph would seem to indicate that while Michie Itoh is a Christian, she is not the one referred to in the thread title-question. Jehovah's Witnesses are strongly against the observation of holy days.

[/ QUOTE ]
That answers a question that I was going to ask. Given her own accounts, could you tell if she was a JW or not? (I later tried to find mentions of JW on her church's site, but there weren't any).

Given that they don't observe holidays, how prevalent is JW among the population? I mean no disrespect whatsoever, but from my impressions of the culture, Christianity is more of a novelty (Harafan's original comment kinda supports this). They're attracted to it by all the flashy ceremonies and celebrations like weddings and Christmas, like Michie was. If you take that away, I'd imagine that it would be harder to get recruits or hold on to members.

And finally, in reference to the original question, is/was there a magazine named after any seiyuu? The only one that I can think of that even comes close to an Oprah or Rosie status is Megumi Hayashibara and I don't think she has her own publication.

[badasscat]

[ QUOTE ]
jupiterstar said:
Given that they don't observe holidays, how prevalent is JW among the population? I mean no disrespect whatsoever, but from my impressions of the culture, Christianity is more of a novelty (Harafan's original comment kinda supports this). They're attracted to it by all the flashy ceremonies and celebrations like weddings and Christmas, like Michie was. If you take that away, I'd imagine that it would be harder to get recruits or hold on to members.

[/ QUOTE ]

Most people who go through Christian rituals in Japan (like Christmas, or "christian" weddings) are not christians at all. So don't assume that if you see two Japanese people getting married in a church that that means they're christians - they're not "recruits", they just like the rituals.

You seem to realize that but your last statement seems to imply that you think a lot of these people really are christians, but that they've converted for the novelty. I apologize if my interpretation is incorrect - I just wanted to point out that a lot of people in Japan engage in christian rituals without being christian, and in fact often without even knowing that those rituals are christian to begin with. (Most Japanese people have no clue about brides wearing white during a christian wedding ceremony, for example, as I know from experience.)

According to this (http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/reference/factbook/ja/popula.html), only about 0.7% of the Japanese population actually identifies itself as Christian. I don't know if they list "Jehova's Witness" as a separate religion in whatever survey this is based on but I doubt it - I think it's probably included in that 0.7%. In any case, I think the number of JW's would be quite a bit smaller even than the number of "mainstream" Christians.

So yeah, I think the population as a whole likes certain christian rituals for the ritual itself, not for what it means. They don't identify with it. I think it's more than a novelty, though - I mean Halloween here is more than a novelty, but very few people these days really know its origins. Still, we celebrate it pretty seriously. I think it's the same in Japan with various christian holidays and rituals... but the religion itself is very, very small.

[Mr. Nail Bat]

[ QUOTE ]
Jeff Williams said:
According to this (http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/reference/factbook/ja/popula.html), only about 0.7% of the Japanese population actually identifies itself as Christian. I don't know if they list "Jehova's Witness" as a separate religion in whatever survey this is based on but I doubt it - I think it's probably included in that 0.7%.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes, statisticians generally tend to include JW's and Mormons as Christians. It's the Evangelicals who exclude them from that subset.

[KK1]

I remember one of our tour guides in Japan telling us many Japanese are whatever religion they need at the time, they go to a Shinto shrine when they're born, a Christian church to get married and a Buddist temple when they die.

[Njr Scrawl]

I know this is OT from my own heading /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

Do many Japanese believe in an "afterlife" or reincarnation?

[KK1]

[ QUOTE ]
Njr Scrawl said:
I know this is OT from my own heading /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

Do many Japanese believe in an "afterlife" or reincarnation?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's why they go to Buddist temples for funerals, Buddahism promises an afterlife but Shintoism doesn't, I guess that's also why Christianity can't make any inroads it's not offering anything unique.

[badasscat]

[ QUOTE ]
KK1 said:
[ QUOTE ]
Njr Scrawl said:
I know this is OT from my own heading /images/graemlins/sweat000.gif

Do many Japanese believe in an "afterlife" or reincarnation?

[/ QUOTE ]

That's why they go to Buddist temples for funerals, Buddahism promises an afterlife but Shintoism doesn't, I guess that's also why Christianity can't make any inroads it's not offering anything unique.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, really, most Japanese are actually buddhists. They're not generally militantly religious like a lot of people in this country are and they don't pepper their speech with references to God like we do (as in "thank god!" and "oh god" and "jesus christ!" and "god bless you" and "god help us" etc. etc.), but they're still buddhists.

I don't really know what shinto customs are common in Japan, actually - I just asked my wife (who's not an authority on everything, but she's the closest person I have to ask), and she didn't know either. She said some of her family goes to shinto temples but it's just because that's what's around. They don't have temples on every street corner like we have churches here, so they go wherever's convenient.

There may be some shinto customs that they, as with Christmas or Valentine's Day and christianity, don't really associate with the shinto religion, but just engage in without real thought. It doesn't make them "shinto for the day" or something, though; they'd still be buddhist if that's their core belief system.