A Forgotten History

Abstract

"Pentecostalism was the fastest growing religious movement of the twentieth century and continues to be one of the largest, if not the largest, Christian movement in the world today. It has impacted Japan, but the history of the movement in this country is almost entirely unknown to the scholarly world and even to Pentecostals themselves. In the two most relevant active fields of research, the history of Christianity in Japan and the worldwide history of Pentecostalism, the scholarly literature offers little information about the Pentecostal movement in Japan. My research has shown that the existing secondary literature about Pentecostals in Japan offers nothing more than a pale glimpse into the reality of this robust and multifaceted movement, and unfortunately appears to be based on unreliable secondary accounts and personal recollections recounted decades after the events took place."