I was reading Diarmaid MacCulloch's book Reformation, when he made reference to the Japanese Christians. I know that they were severely repressed by the Shogunate after an attempted rebellion in the 1600's, but he makes reference to them surviving hidden and being rediscovered when Japan was opened to Western trade. He doesn't really go further than saying that they were discovered with some surprise.
Does anybody know more about this? Do they still survive? In what form?
Meiji restoration established state-shintoism as the national religion, at the same time granting religious freedom to the populace. Underground christian and buddhist sects stopped being prosecuted as long as they didn't undermine Japanese nationalism or the government's authority.
I believe that the sects still survive in their original form but with almost no young members and will probably die out in the next generation.