Japan

The wealthy poor…

Ranked as the most expensive country in which to live, Japan has grown over the last decades to be one of the chief economic powerhouses in the world.  Known as “The Land of the Rising Sun,” from the literal meaning of the kanji characters which make up its name, Japan is comprised of over 3,000 mountainous islands.  Japan’s capital city of Tokyo currently ranks as the largest metropolitan area in the world with over 30 million inhabitants living in greater Tokyo.

Japanese culture is driven by a quest for status and success.  The hierarchical philosophy of Japan is evident even in the Japanese language in which the person talking will use particular verb forms or vocabulary words based on the relative status between the speaker and listener.  Almost all children continue beyond the compulsory middle school level of education and more than 75% of all high school graduates persist through University.  The pace is fast.  The competition is fierce.  And the stakes are even higher than most Japanese people realize…

Though rich economically, Japan is one of the most spiritually bankrupt areas of the world.  About 84% of Japan’s population follow the rules of Buddhism or Shintoism however close to 80% of the total population claim no personal connection to their religious practices at all.  More than 67% of the 2,568 towns in Japan that have a population of between 15,000 and 30,000 people do not have a single church in their town and even in this highly developed nation, there are still rural areas that have never been introduced to the gospel.

The E.C. Response…

Recognizing the need to reach out to a hurting culture, the Evangelical Congregational Church strives to be the face of Christ in a place where 99% of the population are non-Christian.  The E.C. Church of Japan consists of three congregations in the greater Tokyo area whose average morning worship attendance is over 100 people. 

The Sagamihara Grace Chapel (one of the E.C. congregations) is in the process of developing, in cooperation with other local churches, a Christian community center which will minister to the needs of local children and the elderly.