Unreached
Unlike many other 10/40 Window nations, Japan officially guarantees religious freedom, but social and cultural pressures make it difficult for most Japanese to seriously consider conversion to Christianity. The hard-working residents of Japan's megacities areas have a fast-paced materialistic lifestyle that is hard to penetrate with the gospel. With no concept of an all powerful Creator God they have a man-centered view of right and wrong, and have difficulty understanding the concept of sin or their personal need for the Savior.
Religious
Shintoism is the native religion of Japan and the Emperor of Japan is its high priest. It is rooted in animism and its many gods or spirits are known as kami. Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the sixth century and is influential because of its emphasis on ancestor worship. Today, most Japanese adhere to both Shintoist and Buddhist beliefs. Only a small fraction of the population (less than 1%) is evangelical Christian.
Spiritually Hungry
The 21st century has dawned on a unique period of spiritual need in Japan. High-school girls from middle-class suburban families sell themselves in amateur prostitution so they can buy the latest fashions. Retiring businessmen enter their "golden years" depressed with a deep feeling of meaninglessness after giving the best years of their lives to corporations that no longer care. Mothers are overwhelmed by the challenge of raising children in a society that is morally unraveling.
More Japanese today are aware of their inner needs than at any time since the devastating demoralization following World War II. The tides of social history present us with a special opportunity for reaching the lost and multiplying churches among the Japanese.
However, many are indifferent and skeptical toward organized religion. On the outside they seem to have few needs and are often obsessed with momentary pleasure and peer group opinion. Family life is in a period of unprecedented crisis. There is dissatisfaction with the present and despair about the future.
The greatest need of the people of Japan is to know Jesus!
Less than one half of one percent of the 127,000,000 people in Japan know Jesus as their personal Savior. They, like every man, woman, and child, on this earth, really need Jesus.
Jesus knows all about the Japanese!
He knows their strengthens and weakness, their good and evil deeds, He knows the needs in their lives. He is able to see, hear, and speak to their hearts. It is through Jesus Christ that the Japanese will be brought into a right relationship with the one true God of the universe. Jesus offers all who will come to Him, peace for their souls.
Jesus says....
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
"I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly."
"I am the Way, the Truth, the Life, no man comes to the Father but by me."
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall nor perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."