Japanese
Population
The population of Japan is 127.5 million.
Language
Japanese
Location
Japan is a country of 3,000 islands in the Pacific Ocean. The four largest islands are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku.
Culture
Japanese value conformity, loyalty, patience, education and hard work. Deviation from the norm is always controversial. Status is everything—it influences the depth of a bow on greeting, the language style used, the gifts given, and the relationships formed.
The Japanese “dream” includes education in the best schools, a job that offers financial security in exchange for life-long loyalty, and honorable children who do their utmost to secure their parents’ happiness in this world and the next by their adherence to rituals. Music, drama, nature trips and sports—especially baseball—occupy the limited leisure time.
Livelihood
Japan imports nearly half its food and most of its oil, and its high economic growth comes from construction and technology. Exports include automobiles, textiles, electronics, computers, watches and iron and steel.
Political
Closed to the West for most of its history, Japan stepped onto the world stage as a power in the early 1900s. It is governed by a constitutional monarchy and has freedom of religion.
Religion
A blend of Buddhism, Shintoism and Confucianism controls Japanese life. Many Japanese seek Shinto blessings at births and weddings but a Buddhist burial at death. The Japanese belief system has some 8 million gods and no fixed doctrine, and seeks to maintain harmony—with others, with nature, and with ancestral spirits. Still, the pressures of society crowd out spiritual concerns for most.
Openness to Christianity
Christians, including Catholics, number 1.5% of Japan’s population, but evangelical Christians are less than 0.25%! Japanese culture has little place for a “foreign” religion that claims to be unique and attempts to change priorities. Christianity, like everything else in Japan, costs a great deal. Obstacles to faith include family pressures, demon oppression, materialism, business concerns and the shame incurred by breaking from the norm. Despite more than 130 years of Protestant witness, there is only one church for every 17,000 people in Japan.
Missions
Japan’s first contact with Christianity came through Francis Xavier in the 16th century. In 30 years there were over 200 churches. By 1626 the government forbade Christianity and the church went underground for the next 250 years.
In 1854 Japan opened to foreign trade and missionaries, the Bible was translated and many heard the gospel. The anti-Christian laws were repealed in 1873, sending a well-received missionary contingent across the islands. Many thought Japan would be Christianized by the end of the century. Unfortunately, an anti-foreign nationalism slowed the growth in the 1890s.
In 1939 churches were forced to join an association that became a propaganda tool for the government during World War II. Missionaries were expelled, and uncooperative churches were disbanded and their pastors jailed.
Following the war General MacArthur’s plea for a thousand missionaries sent Christians back to Japan. At first the Japanese accepted Christianity quickly and Japan’s church had a baby boom of its own, doubling in size. In the ’60s and ’70s materialism spread like wildfire and consumed church growth. Today, converts come slowly.
OMF Involvement
OMF and many other groups work in Japan. From the beginning, the focus has been on church planting, and this continues today. In addition, in northern Honshu and Hokkaido, OMF pioneered student work, leading to the development of KGK (Japanese InterVarsity). Today in Hokkaido there is also a Bible school as well as other ministries, such as an alcholics rehabilitation facility, a radio ministry and a chain of bookstores, all now under national leadership. Later OMF spread further south as far as the greater Tokyo area, where, like in Hokkaido and northern Honshu, outreach takes many forms: English teaching, music, cooking classes, sports and drama ministries, among others. OMF seeks to plant churches in Japan through building relationships and modeling Christ daily.