What Is the Opportunity?

Japan is thought to be the largest unreached nation on earth. It is estimated that perhaps 98% of Japanese people have not come into contact with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Christian community is small, with evangelicals making up only about 0.2% of the population—a percentage unchanged since at least 1900.¹ There is a vast need for Christian evangelism and discipleship in Japan.

As a historic island nation, Japan has retained a remarkably cohesive cultural identity for millennia. Its deeply embedded Shinto/Buddhist worldview has made it a difficult place for Christian missions. Nevertheless, there is a real opening to share biblical teaching online in Japan, a highly developed nation with widespread online connectivity.

Japanese is the thirteenth most spoken language in the world (125 million people). Primarily spoken in Japan itself, Japanese is also spoken in many other countries, including the United States (450,000 people) and Brazil (380,000 people).

Access to biblical resources in the Japanese language is very limited. Ligonier is stepping forward to provide trustworthy discipleship resources in Japanese to support our brothers and sisters in Christ.

How Is Ligonier Meeting These Needs?

We strive to reach Japanese-speaking pastors, laypeople, and unbelievers from all walks of life through the following outreach efforts:

Online Outreach

Our dedicated-language website and social media channels on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are providing Japanese-speaking people ready access to trustworthy teaching, including freshly translated articles, books, and historic creeds and confessions.

The Ligonier Statement on Christology

People throughout Japan are unaware of the essential tenets of Christology—the doctrine of Christ. As the church grows, it is imperative that believers learn the truths of Scripture as summarized in the great confessions of faith. We produced The Word Made Flesh: The Ligonier Statement on Christology to help Christians know what the church has historically taught and to regain clarity regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to distribute this statement worldwide, and it has already been translated into numerous languages, including Japanese.

Books

There is a clear need for resources from Dr. R.C. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries in Japanese. Our plans include translating, printing, and distributing the following titles:

• By Grace Alone: How the Grace of God Amazes Me by Sinclair Ferguson
• Can I Have Joy in My Life? by R.C. Sproul
• What Can We Know about God? by R.C. Sproul
• What Is the Gospel? by R.C. Sproul

Books Currently Available:

• Saved from What? by R.C. Sproul
• The Race of Faith by R.C. Sproul
• What Is Baptism? by R.C. Sproul
• What Is the Lord’s Supper? by R.C. Sproul
• What Is the Trinity? by R.C. Sproul

What Is Needed?

• Digital outreach — $32,330 USD (annually)
• Subtitling two video teaching series — $11,099 USD

Funding needs reflect quoted estimates based on February 2024 foreign exchange rates and current translation fees.

How Do Your Gifts Help?

These are but a few of many international outreach projects currently underway, and we ask you to prayerfully consider supporting this effort through financially giving or simply through praying for the Japanese-speaking and global church. Your financial generosity helps Ligonier to translate, print, and distribute trustworthy resources, providing countless opportunities to reach people of varying ages and callings. Thank you for giving to reach and equip more people with the life-changing truth of God’s holy Word.

Our policy is to apply gifts given toward a specific program. If we receive more contributions than can be wisely used for a given project, we apply these funds to meet other pressing needs in our outreach efforts. We are committed to stewarding all gifts wisely toward the goal of proclaiming the holiness of God to as many people as possible. Ligonier Ministries is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

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¹ See https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/world-christian-encyclopedia-online/japan-COM_02JPN as at Jul. 5, 2022