Why Japan?
Japan is:
But Japan is also:
Hopelessness is probably the word that best describes what many Japanese are currently experiencing … But we know the Author of Hope! The only true source of hope for Japan (and the world) is the Good News, the Gospel, of Jesus Christ!
- An amazing country with amazing people:
- Astounding natural beauty - God’s creation on full display!
- Loyalty, humility, harmony, giving honor to others and respect for family, elderly & children are all deep-seated in the social fabric of Japanese culture.
- Economically, technologically & socially advanced – very few material needs.
But Japan is also:
- A place of extreme loneliness, isolation, depression and crushing social pressures:
- 11% of Japanese wish they had never been born
- 85% of young people wonder why they even exist
- Staggering suicide rate (increasing among women & children)
- Essentially fatherless families due to extreme working hours & work locations
- Death by overwork has its own term in Japanese: karoshi
- Japanese gov’t recently established a national “Minister of Loneliness”
- Marriage & birthrates are at extremely low levels – Japan will lose 1/3 of her population over the next 35-40 years
- The 2nd largest Unreached People Group in the world: < 1% Christian among its 127M residents
- Part of the “10/40 Window” in the world of missions; primary religions are Shinto & Buddhism
- Called by some the “missionary graveyard”
- Subject to looming geopolitical complexities with her neighbors China, Russia & N. Korea
Hopelessness is probably the word that best describes what many Japanese are currently experiencing … But we know the Author of Hope! The only true source of hope for Japan (and the world) is the Good News, the Gospel, of Jesus Christ!
Romans 15:13
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
BONUS Info for those who like to know more: Please open PDF below
| Bonus Info Ed & Toby Thomas Japan Mission.pdf |