Praying for Japan

Where the church stands in Japan

Japan has had missionaries for over 150 years, complete freedom of religion, full Scripture, and world-class education. It also has a church of roughly one percent — a figure that has barely moved in decades. Many Japanese churches have fewer than thirty members and no pastor under sixty.

The barrier is rarely hostility. It is belonging: to become a Christian in Japan can feel like stepping outside your family, your company and your ancestors all at once. Which is precisely why the Gospel must be carried by Japanese believers, inside Japanese relationships, over years.

Signs of hope

A growing recognition that reaching Japan runs through relationships and time, not campaigns — and a rising generation of Japanese church planters.

The honest difficulty

An aging, shrinking church, tiny congregations, and the social cost of leaving family religious tradition.

What "Unreached" means

There is no indigenous community of believing Christians large enough to evangelise the rest of the nation without outside help. Commonly measured as under 2% evangelical.

In Japan the majority religious context is Shinto and Buddhism; ~60% state no personal religion. The largest population still considered without meaningful Gospel access is the Japanese (~123 million).

How to pray for Japan

Prayer is not a substitute for going; it is how going begins. Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.

• Pray for Japan — free, wealthy, and still barely reached after 150 years.
• Ask God to raise young Japanese pastors for churches whose leaders are retiring.
• Pray for believers carrying the Gospel to family members who see it as betrayal.
• Pray against the despair and isolation behind Japan's suicide rate.