Fake priest weddings in Japan

Ok, here is something that I didn't know existed.

Apparently, it is quite common for wedding companies to hire foreigners to dress up and act in the role of a "fake priest" for western style weddings.

I'm very curious, what does Japan in general view this as. It seems that this is not really something they are knowledgeable of even. Does anyone here have experience with this personally?

Emoni said:

Ok, here is something that I didn't know existed.
Apparently, it is quite common for wedding companies to hire foreigners to dress up and act in the role of a "fake priest" for western style weddings.
I'm very curious, what does Japan in general view this as. It seems that this is not really something they are knowledgeable of even. Does anyone here have experience with this personally?

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I think it's one of options for wedding style. Christianity in Japan is neglegeable - 1% or less, being the same as Islam or others. Nobody take it into serious consideration. I personally don't care about religions and those related ceremonies. It's all up to your preference.

I think most Japanese are quite aware that the wedding priests are just blonde long-haired guys hired to do the job, and don't particularly care.

I think for most people getting married today, they are buying an image or ambiance, and religious concerns are largely negligible.

Marriage in Japan is a civil institution, after all, not a religious one.

I'm not going on about religion really (I'm atheist so I'm not trying to state that this is some sort of sin). What I'm curious about is how it is viewed in general. I figured that maybe most people knew, but at the same time I also wondered if some people felt it was a bit deceptive in a way.

You've just heard how it is viewed in general. What more do you want?

I had such a wedding. Didn't make it any more or less legal. The 10 minutes you spend in city hall or ward office does that. The ceremony can be with a fake priest in a fake chapel, or in Honolulu with a luau, or at a shrine in full costume with separate rickshaws pulling the couple there, or in a real church. Ceremony is ceremony.

Deceptive? Who is being deceived?

Glenski said:

You've just heard how it is viewed in general. What more do you want?

I had such a wedding. Didn't make it any more or less legal. The 10 minutes you spend in city hall or ward office does that. The ceremony can be with a fake priest in a fake chapel, or in Honolulu with a luau, or at a shrine in full costume with separate rickshaws pulling the couple there, or in a real church. Ceremony is ceremony.

Deceptive? Who is being deceived?

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People stand there pretending they are unaware of the fact that its just theatre. A whole chapel filled with people who feign ignorance. What do you call that? Idiocy, right?

It serves no purpose and so it is largely unnecessary. And yes, people are deceived by it. People deceive each other into believing that the whole rubbish is important. Such feigned ignorance creates another useless social convention. "Oh what kinda of marriage did you have? Weeally? A weal pwiest? Och."

People deliberately fabricating transparent lies about their marriage is as shallow as it will get.

It's called suspension of disbelief. The ceremony is designed for the entertainment value and because the couple and their guests need something more than just signing some papers at city hall to feel like they're really married. If they aren't actually Christian, what difference should it make whether the priest is "real" or not, as long as they put on a good show? It's the ceremony that creates the feeling of authenticity, not the validity of the priest's qualifications.

I'm not at all Christian or overly religious but my mother is and that's how I was raised so I have to say that this practice honestly disgusts me. Maybe it's my upbringing but I've always been taught that religion, the church and marriage are sacred so, to me, hiring fake priests in a fake church and giving 'fake' vows (I know legally it's recognized but legal is a very cold way to get married), it seems like they are slapping Christian beliefs and practices in the face and turning what should be a beautiful ceremony into a joke. And that's just what it is, a ceremony, a religious practice. I know people who are into Japan certainly wouldn't be so disrespectful as to mock their ceremonies and practices by paying a Japanese man to preside over their fake Japanese wedding in a fake Shinto temple so why do they?
I know it's probably in style to have the whole white dress, white chapel wedding in Japan but if you are going to turn it into a hollow performance then just ... don't.
That's just my two cents.

MadamePapillon said:

I know people who are into Japan certainly wouldn't be so disrespectful as to mock their ceremonies and practices by paying a Japanese man to preside over their fake Japanese wedding in a fake Shinto temple so why do they?

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Actually, most Japanese people wouldn't mind at all. They'd more likely than not be happy to find out about it!

Mikawa Ossan said:

Actually, most Japanese people wouldn't mind at all. They'd more likely than not be happy to find out about it!

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I was more talking about the people who would be getting married. I guess we're more conscious of offending other peoples cultures so it would be a big no-no.

Kinda like, I don't drink out of your coffee cup so why are you drinking out of mine (if that makes any sense ... I barely even know what i was trying to say there).

nice gaijin said:

It's called suspension of disbelief. The ceremony is designed for the entertainment value and because the couple and their guests need something more than just signing some papers at city hall to feel like they're really married. If they aren't actually Christian, what difference should it make whether the priest is "real" or not, as long as they put on a good show? It's the ceremony that creates the feeling of authenticity, not the validity of the priest's qualifications.

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I lean that way as well, but then I consider the idea of how they might feel if they went to a Japanese wedding and everyone was simply in costume and not part of any temple... but behaved and presented themselves as if they did.

perhaps you can blame it on the inundation of western cultural artifacts that present wedding ceremonies as they exist in a christian setting. The Japanese getting married in this fashion want the cultural experience of a christian wedding, they don't care about the actual religious aspects of the ceremony.

MadamePapillon: Legally, the bit in city hall is really the only part that matters. As far as the government is concerned, any ceremony beyond that is unnecessary. Shinto, Buddhist, Christian, or Secular, wedding ceremonies are purely for the indulgence of the couple and their guests.

I believe the wedding industry in Japan filled a niche (and a quite profitable one at that) in providing the romantic, western type of wedding that Japanese females see on TV and in the movies. I believe the wedding of the late Princess Diana had a lot to do with starting this "custom" in 1981 as most Japanese females I spoke to at the time remarked on how beautiful and romantic it was and that they'd like to have one like that.

It could also have started when singers and talento and such started having christian style weddings during that period as I don't remember hearing of christian type weddings before that (although they could well have existed and I just wasn't aware of it).

Some people above have stated how hypocritical and "disgusting" it is, but I see no harm in it as I have seen numerous weddings here in the US where the couple gets married in a church but hardly ever sets foot in one afterwards. They claim to be Christians, but they never practice it. Isn't that disgusting and hypocritical also?

As nice gaijin stated above, "Shinto, Buddhist, Christian, or Secular, wedding ceremonies are purely for the indulgence of the couple and their guests" and are nothing more IMO.

In my own case we had a Shinto wedding with the complete ceremony in kimono and all along with the tux and white wedding dress as that is what the parents wanted. As they were paying for it, who was I to argue? It made them happy and that's all that mattered in the end. If it was up to me and my wife, we'd have preferred the city hall and a nice honeymoon and saved a boatload of money.

I wonder how women feel, especially Japanese women. Do they want all the pomp and ceremony of a western style, Christian wedding as it's romantic and the "in" thing to do? Or, do they do it to impress their friends and are just copying celebrities?

Pachipro said:

I wonder how women feel, especially Japanese women. Do they want all the pomp and ceremony of a western style, Christian wedding as it's romantic and the "in" thing to do? Or, do they do it to impress their friends and are just copying celebrities?

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That's the part that seems very wrong to me. Treating wedding customs as just another fad, I think that's probably the thing about Japan (despite all that is interesting and fascinating) that truly bugs me.
Sure legally you only need to sign a paper and yes some Christians are really only Christian in name but I think saying that is just trying to justify the Japanese taking, what many consider to be a sacred practice, stripping it of any real substance and using it as a gimmick because it's the 'cool' thing to do.
Even non-Christians in the West take it seriously enough to not have a wedding they don't believe in which is why atheist weddings were invented.


@nice gaijin
What the government considers important and what two people about to be married consider important are two separate things. Most people wouldn't feel properly married unless they had a wedding. Signing a piece of paper is just for the records.

Derfel said:

People stand there pretending they are unaware of the fact that its just theatre. A whole chapel filled with people who feign ignorance. What do you call that? Idiocy, right?

It serves no purpose and so it is largely unnecessary. And yes, people are deceived by it. People deceive each other into believing that the whole rubbish is important. Such feigned ignorance creates another useless social convention. "Oh what kinda of marriage did you have? Weeally? A weal pwiest? Och."

People deliberately fabricating transparent lies about their marriage is as shallow as it will get.

Click to expand...

Derfel said:

People stand there pretending they are unaware of the fact that its just theatre. A whole chapel filled with people who feign ignorance. What do you call that? Idiocy, right?

It serves no purpose and so it is largely unnecessary. And yes, people are deceived by it. People deceive each other into believing that the whole rubbish is important. Such feigned ignorance creates another useless social convention. "Oh what kinda of marriage did you have? Weeally? A weal pwiest? Och."

People deliberately fabricating transparent lies about their marriage is as shallow as it will get.

Click to expand...

What do you call it when a room full of people in a movie theatre watch flickering images on a screen? Idiocy? Do you have the same reaction watching Japanese at Disney Land? Japanese were nothing but appreciative when I did that sort of work. The only disparaging remarks came from gaijin.