Abstract

This chapter provides an account of the Bahá’í Faith in the countries of Northeast Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, Sakhalin Island, and Taiwan). Against a backdrop of warfare, revolution, and intense ideological and territorial contest, the histories of the Bahá’í communities in most of these countries have slowly but surely progressed through at least three distinct phases: the first comprising the arrival of individual Bahá’ís in the nineteenth century; the second comprising systematic efforts under the Ten Year Plan (1953–63), during which the Tokyo-based regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North East Asia was established in 1957; and the third comprising the emergence from this regional body of separate national Spiritual Assemblies in Japan and Korea (1964), Taiwan (1967), and Hong Kong (1974). Political circumstances in China, Mongolia, and Sakhalin resulted in slower emergence, with organized Bahá’í activities in China halted since 1949. The first entry by Bahá’ís to the Russian territory of Sakhalin Island occurred in the 1990s, and the national Assembly of Mongolia was first elected in 1994.