Transforming Selves: Identity, History, and Autonomy among Roman Catholics in Tokyo

Abstract

This dissertation on Roman Catholic communities in contemporary Tokyo examines ways in which individuals (re)construct and (re)negotiate their social, cultural and religious identities using Roman Catholicism. In particular, this study documents the transformative processes associated with becoming Catholic in contemporary Tokyo. Past scholarship has established that the Japanese sense of self can be characterized as "relational" when compared with American and/or Western notions of the self. I argue that this "relational" sense of self has been shaped through discursive processes in Japanese history which have emphasized a Neo-Confucian based system of ethics. I further argue that when converts deepen their understanding of the Catholic world view, they experience a new power structure in which human authority is significantly diminished. This re-structuring of authority results in a sense of liberation and elation for these Japanese Catholics, whose sense of self has previously been shaped by social obligations and by the Japanese emphasis on the social order and the authority of human beings. The culturally sanctioned relational sense of self is often transformed to a less relational one which privileges the notion of integrity, thereby creating an autonomous self that is analogous to the Western notion of the individual. By situating social actors within particular historical trajectories that the nation has taken, this study illuminates the ways in which history and power inform the sense of self in Japan.