Many people ask us, “Why Japan?” Before God began stirring in our hearts a burden for the Japanese people, we would have asked the same question. We’d like to share how God has given us a burden for the huge number of Japanese people that don’t know Him, and we hope that you too will begin to not only see the need for the Gospel in Japan, but that you will have a desire to partner with us in bringing it to them.

The 99%

Most people don’t realize that Japan is actually one of the least reached people groups in the world. The Joshua Project defines least reached as “a people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize this people group without outside assistance.” With less than 1% of Japanese people professing faith in Christ, there is a desperate need for believers from other nations to partner with the Japanese church in reaching their own people with the Gospel.

Most Will Live and Die Without Hearing the Gospel

The tiny number of Japanese people that know Christ as their Savior means that most Japanese people will live and die in Japan without ever hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Couple this with the fact that the Japanese church is actually shrinking, and you can see that we need to partner with the Japanese church in bringing the Gospel to their own people. As a Japanese friend of ours put it, “When you get to heaven, and you see people from every tribe, tongue, and nation, there won’t be very many Japanese people there.” We want eternity to be filled with Japanese people that have trusted in Christ as their Savior.

Parents, Siblings, Friends, Neighbors . . . 

While “less than 1%” knowing Christ is a compelling reason to bring the Gospel to the Japanese people, it’s only when we begin to see the other 99% as real people: friends, brothers, sisters, parents, children, neighbors, and co-workers, that we realize how tragic the need in Japan really is. Our hearts began to open to the need in Japan when our Japanese friends told us of how, for many of them, no one else in their family knew the Lord, and many of their friends and co-workers didn’t know Him either. Hearing their sorrow over the souls of those they loved moved their burden to become our own.

A Great Need for Leaders

As we already mentioned, the Japanese church is actually shrinking in size. A big part of this is the fact that the average age of a pastor in Japan is over 70. The leadership of the church in Japan is literally dying out without enough new leaders rising up to take their place. When my Japanese friend’s pastor died, their church didn’t get a new pastor for over a decade. Many pastors lead multiple fellowships. We desire to see new leaders rise up from among the Japanese people to lead a new generation of believers.

We Love the Japanese People

As we mentioned before, statistics can be eye-opening, but it is people that move our hearts. God has put in our hearts a deep love for the Japanese people, and a strong desire to partner with the church in Japan with bringing the Gospel to their own country. They are an incredible people with a rich culture, vibrant traditions, and a beautiful country. We are proud to call many of them our friends, and look forward to deepening relationships with Japanese people as we fellowship with believers and build connections with lost people.

God Treasures the Japanese People

We know it is God’s desire to see all of the people of the earth come to know Him, from every tribe, tongue, and nation. We want to bring the Gospel to the Japanese people, because we know that God treasures them and desires that they would enter into a relationship with Him.