The spiritual needs in Japan are great. Japan is regarded as one of the most resistant countries in the world. The Japanese are the 2nd largest unreached people group in the world (Shaikh people of Bangladesh are the largest). There are still 1,700 towns & villages without a single church. True born-again believers represent less than one percent (this is less than some Muslim countries).
The number of new believers each year is almost completely offset by the number that fall away. There has been very little progress during the past 50 years in spite of intensive missionary efforts. The growth in the number of Christians has declined from 4.6% per year (following WWII) to less than 0.4% currently. At the current growth rate it would take 1,200 years to bring the percentage of Christians up to only 7% of the population. There has been a serious decline in interest & openess to the Gospel.
Most of the churches are very small. There is a shortage of Japanese pastors (86% of them are over 50 years old). There is a shrinking missionary force. The number of missionaries has shrunk by approx. 20% during the past 20 years.
"I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;
they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest,
and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
and makes her the praise of the earth."
-- Isaiah 62:6-7
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