American missionaries in contemporary Japan: Their shared expressive practices

Various expressive forms and practices of groups have been studied in the discipline of folklore. This dissertation explores the expressive practices that are shared by a number of American missionaries in contemporary Japan. In 2003, ten American Christians working there as missionaries were interviewed. The common expressive practices found in the interview responses of my informants arose from what all the members of their group share: Christian faith, American culture, and experiences as a missionary in Japan.;The main questions for the interviewees were: (1) why they decided to become missionaries and work in Japan; (2) what were/are their difficulties living and working in an unfamiliar culture, and how they have managed those difficulties; and (3) what they thought about Japanese culture, that is, what qualities and problems have they noticed, especially in comparison with American culture. Though each of their answers was unique, there were characteristic expressive forms and patterns in common among these answers that identify American missionaries in Japan as a distinctive group.