United Church of Christ in Japan

[2] It is a union of thirty-three diverse Protestant denominations forcibly merged by the Japanese wartime government on June 24, 1941.

[3] Upon promulgation of the Religious Organizations Law that forced the merger of all the Protestant churches in Japan to unite, a declaration of church unity was made at a mass meeting of Christians from all parts of Japan on 17 October 1940.

[5] With the establishment of religious freedom by the Allied Occupation Forces in 1946, many groups left the Kyōdan to reestablish their prewar denominational identities.

The union's wartime origin and the church's self-acknowledged complicity in the war were called into question.

[10] United Church of Christ in Japan permits openly gay and lesbian pastors to act as ministers.