Who the Japanese are
The Japanese are the largest unreached people group in the developed world. They have had missionaries since the 1850s, complete religious freedom, the whole Bible in excellent translations, and world-leading literacy. The church is still around one percent, and that figure has barely moved in decades.
The obstacle is rarely hostility and almost never information. It is belonging. Japanese social life is built on the group — family, company, community — and becoming a Christian can feel like stepping outside all three at once, and out of an obligation to ancestors that predates any of them. Which is why the Gospel here travels through long relationships, carried by Japanese believers, over years.
Signs of hope
A rising generation of Japanese church planters, and growing recognition that this people is reached through patience and relationship, not campaigns.
The honest difficulty
An ageing church with tiny congregations, few young pastors, and a social cost to conversion that information cannot address.
What "Unreached" means
There is no indigenous community of believers large enough to reach the rest of the group without outside help — commonly measured as under 2% evangelical.
This describes access to the Gospel, not the worth of a people or the sincerity of anyone's faith.
How to pray for the Japanese
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 of work.
- Ask God to raise young Japanese pastors for congregations whose leaders are retiring.
- Pray for believers whose families read their faith as abandonment.
- Pray against the isolation and despair behind Japan's suicide rate.
Where the Japanese live
Each nation profile carries church size, unreached peoples, what is going well, what is hard, and four prayer points.
Questions people ask about the Japanese
Who are the Japanese people?
The Japanese (also called Nihonjin) are a people group of roughly 123 million, living mainly in Japan. They speak Japanese and are predominantly Shinto and Buddhism. Free, wealthy, fully evangelised on paper — and about one percent Christian after 150 years. Population figures for people groups vary considerably by source and by how a group is defined.
Are the Japanese an unreached people group?
The Japanese are classified as unreached. There is no indigenous community of believers large enough to reach the rest of the group without outside help — commonly measured as under 2% evangelical. Scripture status: Full Bible, many translations, freely available.
How can I pray for the Japanese?
Pray for Japan — free, wealthy, and still barely reached after 150 years of work. Ask God to raise young Japanese pastors for congregations whose leaders are retiring. Take one of these for a week rather than all of them for a day.