Why is it so important to use pre-Heisei merger city/town/village boundaries to know where remaining unchurched areas in Japan are?
Most of Japan’s remaining unchurched areas are now hidden statistically due to the Heisei era municipal mergers (1999 to 2014). Much of Kanto and Kansai were relatively unaffected, so many even in Japan are not so aware of their impact, but most prefectures were substantially impacted. Rural Japan’s municipal boundaries were redrawn governmentally so that most of rural Japan and most of unchurched Japan is now ‘hidden’ in “churched” cities. It is not that the city expanded naturally until it encompassed nearby rural communities. Rather, most rural towns and villages were merged with geographically, relationally, and psychologically unrelated cities or else amalgamated with other unrelated towns and villages.
Almost overnight, Japan statistically went from having 1800 to just over 500 unchurched cities, towns, and villages, all without a single church being planted. That is, nearly 1300 unchurched areas statistically vanished as a side effect of the Heisei era governmental mergers. As a result, data sources such as Church Information Systems (or its replacement, Japan Mission Research or JMR) and Christian Data Book are no longer a sufficient means to identify where the remaining unchurched areas are in Japan, even though they provide excellent church statistics.
So as its first project, RJCPN created a database and maps on church presence or absence within the pre-merger city/town/village boundaries, and included their populations at the time of the mergers in the database, for all communities in Japan to preserve this key information. Without these maps, it would appear most of Japan’s communities now have churches, when the reality is that 1800 still do not. To adequately represent the needs of rural Japan from a missiological standpoint, it is very important to continue to use the pre-Heisei Era Merger city/town/village boundaries. Thus, RJCPN will continue to track and update information on whether or not a church exists within each pre-merger city/town/village. Submission of updates is welcome.
All 1800 of these unchurched areas still need their first church or other sustained local outreach, yet for 1300 of them, that need is obscured statistically. Though now administratively merged with a churched city, these 1300 areas are likely to continue to be pragmatically distinct communities for decades to come. Hence, missiologically, they remain just as much in need of their own church or other sustained outreach as they did before the mergers. So it is essential to use the pre-Heisei merger boundaries in order to adequately represent the remaining unchurched areas of Japan. Otherwise, the millions living in such areas will remain without meaningful opportunity to encounter the gospel.
The Heisei merger was unlike other large-scale mergers that occurred in the Meiji and Showa eras. The purpose of the Meiji era merger (1889) was to form municipalities capable of producing and maintaining an elementary school, and the Showa era merger (1953 to 1961) was to form municipalities large enough to sustain a middle school. The interaction created by the schools provided a means through which the merged towns/villages become one over time. Except in Tohoku where many of the communities merged in the Showa era still after 60 years do not see themselves as meaningfully one, in most other regions, the schools eventually resulted in relational and psychological connection. However, the recent Heisei era merger is different. This time, there is nothing to cause the people to become acquainted and bond into a single community because the Heisei merger was only related to economic factors associated with administrative efficiency (such as creating a larger pool for health insurance). Furthermore, many merged communities are 30 minutes to an hour apart with no public transportation between them. So decades later they are likely to remain as unrelated as they were before the merger.
Nearly 1300 of Japan’s 1800 unchurched pre-merger towns and villages are now ‘hidden’ in a ‘distant churched city’, but their need for a church to have meaningful access to the gospel in their area is just as great, because they remain distinct communities at a relational and psychological level—and often geographically too. The recent mergers did not result in increased gospel access in these areas. Hence, it is essential to track church presence/absence using pre-Heisei merger municipal boundaries.