This is a continuation of my last post on Japanese ministries.

As many of you may know, I went to India for a short term mission last year. I went to the villages where the nearest hospital is 5 hours away by car, villages have rolling blackouts and sometimes left without electricity for weeks, and people were killed for just sharing the gospel. Without the everyday needs of a conditioned North American, they rely on God for everything from their daily bread to healing from a fever, which can be a fatal disease. Christians are even sometimes held at gunpoint to renounce their faith but most stay strong. (I am in the process of writing a book and will publish it very soon.)

Now, Japan is the completely opposite or India. In terms of human and economic development, Japan ranks as one of the highest countries in the world. The difference in salary between the rich and the poor is minimal, healthcare is amazing, you can buy whatever you want and sometimes when you want some technology that is not invented yet, sooner or later it will be invented. In return, the workforce consisting of mainly men work for long hours everyday with no overtime pay and most women stay at home and become full-time housewives. High school students study day and night and on weekends too whilst university students go to school in the day and work part-time jobs at night. Their schedule has almost no place for anything else other than perhaps the rare exercise.

Rev. Yano described it as the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. Japan is so preoccupied with so many things on people’s agendas they feel like they have enough in life. Many of them have a gut feeling that something is missing in their lives but the culture dictates that talking about religion or culture with others means you are trying to use them therefore faith is not discussed at all.

Despite the culture completely rejecting God, God is still good and there are still quite a few loopholes or workaround in the culture for God’s word to seep in. My next posts will be on examples of evangelism and ministries in Japan. For a heads up, ministries in Japan are a long process which means sadly, only long term missions will have the optimal results.