As it is, it's a storytelling device - a trope, in other words.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Azor Ahai
To explain my changes:
- You don't get to put a this troper in the description of the trope.
- I don't know about the speculation about Japan becoming Christian. I'd imagine it might have happened had a European country conquered Japan, and I don't think the trope should be written to imply that's what should have happened.
- I took out the part about negative depictions. Maybe there are a bunch in works not listed, but the far majority of the depictions on this page (even in Japanese works) seemed fairly positive.
Good catch. That wasn't a very well written edit on my part. Probably got to head back to editing overview and retake the course.
Good point on negative/positive portrayals. Given Japan's overwhelming atheistic majority, and the consequentially exotic nature of religion, if Christianity even crosses a Japanese creator's mind it'll generally be in a positive way. American atheists are more likely to be hostile to Christianity because the US is at its core (more so than in its government) a Christian nation, so American atheists are exposed to Christian views far more frequently. Familiarity often breeds contempt, after all.
American atheists are more likely to have a positive view of religions that are more exotic to them, like Buddhism and Islam. Just as Christianity is more exotic to the Japanese and thus they'll view it in a fairly positive light.
Edited by Bozozoku
Is merely wearing a cross really good enough evidence to justify inclusion on this page? People might wear one just because it's an attractive piece of jewellery without intending it to have religious significance, especially in a country where Christians are a small minority anyway.
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Probably not, unless the character is seen praying, or quotes scripture or something. Here in the US, goths often wear crosses, too, but generally aren't Christians.
Edit: This, by the way, is why I opted not to include Seo Kouji as an example without further confirmation. Suzuka has a strong pro-life, pro-chastity message, and the main characters end up having a very Christian-looking wedding. Several characters in Kimi No Iru Machi wear crosses, including Eba's sister, who clearly does not approve of Eba's apparent trampiness. Also, the hero Haruto is quite chaste. Cross Over takes place in what appears to be a Christian school (Saint Mariannu Academy). And Princess Lucia has a chaste hero who's clearly afraid of the idea of making a baby with a demon princess, but at the same time doesn't judge her as a person based on her heritage. But none of those stories contain any clear Christian statements, Bible quotes, or anything else that jumps out at me and says, "Yep, no doubt about it; totally Christian." It looks to me like Kouji has probably at least had a lot of Christian influence in his life, but that doesn't necessarily make him a Christian himself.
Yamahana Noriyuki, on the other hand, flat-out states in the author's notes in his stories how much Jesus and the Bible mean to him, so I did add him.
Edited by Bozozoku
There's another manga creator I'd like to add as an example, but I'm not sure if he's actually a Christian: Seo Kouji. His stories tend to use a fair bit of Christian imagery and contain plot twists that could easily be viewed as Christian Aesops, but I haven't seen it definitively stated anywhere that he's actually a Christian. Can anyone else confirm/deny this?
IIRC, Usagi (the main character of Sailor Moon) qualifies