Christianity to Japan Essay -- Religion Religious Japanese Christian E

Christianity In Japan Japan has been a home for Shinto and Buddhist religions for centuries. The Christian missionaries during the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries worked hard to evangelize the Japanese nation but could not get desired success. There efforts in past failed partly due to sanctions imposed by the local rulers. The Jesuits missionaries traveled with Spanish and Portuguese traders to many areas of America and Asia-Pacific and established their churches and religious missions. They were funded, sponsored and trained by their respective governments in order to spread Christianity. At several places they preached the Christian faith by force but the aboriginal population did not accept it wholeheartedly. Initially the Jesuits targeted the elite class of the country and a large number was converted. The rulers also forced their subject to embrace the same faith. About 300,000 Japanese were converted in the first phase. Later on, Christianity was prohibited as the rulers started seeing them as a thre at to their authority. Following a change of regime, the ban was lifted and missionaries were again allowed to enter Japan. Like many Native American tribes, the Japanese also resisted the new religion. As a result, presently Christians form only 1% of the total population in Japan. This paper is focused on how the Christian religion was introduced in Japan, the evolution of evangelism, establishment of churches, the restrictions and hurdles faced by the missionaries and priest of the new religion and the response of Japanese nation towards an alien faith. All these queries are answered in detail given as follows. Christianity in Japan spread in various phases. Like many other parts of world, it was brought by religious missionaries and the European traders and invaders. It is almost in middle of the 16th century that the Portuguese traders arrived on the â€Å"land of rising sun†. The traders, who landed at Kyushu, brought along gunpowder that was not previously known to the Japanese. The local barons cordially responded to these traders mainly because of the weapons they possessed. The traders were also accompanied by Christian missionaries who were allowed to conduct their religious preaching by the local barons. A large number of Japanese were converted by these missionaries. The formal conversion to Christianity began when Francis Xavier, the Sp... ...n the Kanto area and 23.8 percent in the Kansai region. At the very least, the fact that scores of younger Japanese are choosing Christian weddings indicates that the present environment is much more open to Christianity and that the stigma once attached to the Christian faith has declined during the past several decades†. Mullins further states that this observance of Christian rituals may not be considered as an indication of solid faith in the religion instead it could be associated with â€Å"popular movie stars and all of that†. At the turn of century, the total number of Christians living in Japan is estimated at about 1,075,000 that accounts to less than 1 % of the total residents. The Kondansha's Encyclopaedia describes that, â€Å"There were 436,000 Catholics with some 800 parishes in 16 dioceses, while Protestants numbered 639,000 with nearly 7,000 churches†. The statistics shows that overall the evangelist faith has not received the desired response in the Japanese society. No significant conversions have been witnessed during the last half century. It is still a foreign religion and the one practiced by a small minority is also more Japanized rather than Christianized.

Building a Brand Community on the Harley Posse Ride

Why or why not? $100,000.00 budget (Posse Ride II), is a good price for value comparing to other alternatives to advertise and build communities; The â€Å"Posse Ride† is probably the most important MKT instrument to build and preserve internal aspect of Harley-Davidson product regarding its brand; The product’s meaning of adventure, freedom and even rebellious, works like a relief for the life responsibilities for its members; For human beings gregarious aspects are important and people have the necessity to belong to groups.What role should the Posse Ride play in the HOG events mix? â€Å"Posse Ride† is the main instrument to connect company to the customers and to build the product’s brand concept.How should the Posse Ride be designed to maximize its effectiveness and profit-making potential, should you decide to keep it? â€Å"Posse Ride† has to be kept. The following initiatives could be taken to maximize its MKT value: Export the event to coun tries that value US culture; Promote a Posse Ride pilgrimage in different countries at the same period (integrate and make the event bigger); Develop partnership (e.g. tourism companies) to capture higher value from the event; Develop other products aligned with the same image (e.g. perfume, clothing style, fast food chain, video-game, headphone, entertainment); Create a TV program or internet web site to post news and stories about â€Å"Posse Rider†; Invite people abroad to participate;Develop strategy focused to tease young people and women to participate in the event; Connect Posse Ride to mega music shows (e.g. Rock’n Rio and Woodstock); Sustainable initiatives are welcome as well.How the Before-After survey data can help you with your recommendations? To measure trends of consume, make changes in the product and to identify new groups of customers; To assess points to be solved to obtain a higher member’s satisfaction.How are brand communities build? Build a strong idea/concept that can aggregate people around it; Offer to them the opportunity to get in contact/socialize (events and internet); Provide new ideas connected to the main concept (innovate);Promote and coordinate meetings.How can we identify communities and its members? Assessing consume behavior; What is Harley’s brand identity? Adventure, challenge, freedom, rebellious. Opportunity to take part of a big pilgrimage and a sense of belonging.What is HOG’s role in developing community for the Harley-Davidson brand? That is the bond that glues members around the product concept; It is what members receive to fulfill their expectations about the product.Evaluate Harley’s attitude and performance in â€Å"getting close to its customers†. Not just to get close to the customers, but more than that, to have an intimal and personal connection with them (they ride and have bears together along the Posse Rider); It helps to develop products and to keep str ong and alive the product concept in front of their customers; Harley-Davidson executives riding side-by-side with all members empowers the event and allow them to understand the company’s connection to their customers.

Yoku - What does the Japanese word yoku mean

Word of the Day: yoku Pronunciation: Click here to listen to the audio file. Meaning: well; skillfully; fully; quite; enough Japanese characters: よ㠁  Example: Takashi wa okaasan to totemo yoku niteiru.隆㠁 ¯Ã£ Å Ã¦ ¯ Ã£ â€¢Ã£â€šâ€œÃ£  ¨Ã£  ¨Ã£  ¦Ã£â€šâ€šÃ£â€šË†Ã£  Ã¤ ¼ ¼Ã£  ¦Ã£ â€žÃ£â€šâ€¹Ã£â‚¬â€š Translation: Takashi looks a lot alike his mom. More Words of the Day: Previous wordNext wordWord of the Day by email