Four hundred and fifty years ago, on 23September 1543, three Portuguese merchants travelling on a Chinese junk were blown by a storm onto the south-western tip of Japan. So at last was discovered to the West that fabled country which Marco Polo reported and Columbus sought.
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The first known appearance of organized Christianity in Japan was the arrival of the Portuguese Catholics in 1549. Spanish missionary Francis Xavier arrived in Japan with three Japanese Catholic converts intending to start a church in Japan. The local Japanese people initially...