Dear Sir,
Like many of your readers, I was deeply saddened by the awful death of the 71-year-old pensioner Haruo Hayashizaki from Japan, who poured petrol over himself and set it alight (see Louise Morse’s column, September en).
Japan has a population of 127 million. Out of that number 596,000 are evangelical Christians, but it is a land of great need. Even its leaders called it ‘a superpower without a moral compass’. Many old people and young people lack confidence in the future and the shocking fact is that young people struggle the most, in particular with problems such as a suicide epidemic (over 30,000 per year), mistreatment by peers, or teenage prostitution. High suicide and divorce rates in other age groups confirm the crisis.
There is no doubt that spiritual powers and principalities in Japan hinder the gospel. The powers associated with idolatry in temples and ancestor worship in homes remain strong and many Japanese follow some rituals of Buddhism, Shintoism or the occult.
The church in Japan grew between 1945 and 1960 but has seen little growth since then. The thing that should bring us to our knees in prayer for Japan is that today up to half of those baptised leave their churches within two to three years.
The other thing we should pray about is that at least 70% of all churches have an average attendance of less than 30 people. Most churches will not have one baptism in a typical year. Of those who attend, women outnumber men seven to one.
Japan is the largest unevangelised nation completely open to missionaries, 24 cities in Japan have no church at all and 595 towns and villages also have no church. This the challenge that is before us as the church in the West.
Will readers please pray for that needy land and, better still, would some respond to the missionary challenge and go.
God bless,
