God is Moving in Japan

There are two Japanese words for peace: 

Heiwa is outer peace; the absence of conflict.  

Heian is inner peace; the kind that only Christ can give to the fullest. 

Japan has heiwa. It is starving for heian.  

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” — John 14:27 

Japan is clean, orderly, efficient, and outwardly peaceful: a nation where trains run on time, crowds move in harmony, and politeness is woven into the fabric of daily life. However, beneath the surface, there’s a spiritual ache so deep that you can’t miss it once you open your eyes.

According to Japan Mission, in Japan, 88% of people don’t know the name Jesus, 95% have never heard the Gospel, and less than 1% identify as Christian (1). On top of that, the few churches that do exist are generally tiny, aging, and scarce. Mustard Seed Network reports that the average pastor is over 70 (2). Many congregations are nearing the end of their life cycle.  

It’s easy to dismiss these stats as mere numbers, but they became very real while I was on a short‑term team sent by Woodside to explore what it looks like to do ministry in Japan. More than once, we saw our train lines shut down because of a suicide on the tracks. We saw individuals weeping alone as crowds passed by without a glance, men who work themselves to exhaustion, and people praying to their powerless Shinto gods for “luck” or relief. Most people seemed cold, self‑isolated, and almost lifeless.   

The Lord is Moving in Japan  

Yet amid this spiritual dryness, God is moving through His people. Our team traveled through Tokyo, Kyoto, Hiroshima, and Fukuoka, meeting dedicated pastors, missionaries, church planters, and everyday believers laboring in places where Christ is largely unknown.  

We first saw the Lord moving in Cornerstone Church in Tokyo, where Woodside‑sent missionaries Amos and Ashley Miguel serve a congregation that is bursting out of its tiny room every Sunday and striving to be a light in its community.  

We then saw the Lord moving in the Mustard Seed Network, a faithful family of churches planted across Japan’s largest cities, each one committed to discipleship, leadership development, and long‑term presence.

Mustard Seed has planted a church in 11 of Japan’s 12 cities with populations of at least one million people. Their newest church plant is in Fukuoka, the nation’s fastest‑growing city. The church was planted by David and Alyssa Wissel, a missionary couple supported by Woodside. David now faithfully pastors the church.  

A Pair of Sunday Morning Encounters  

Our team worshiped with Mustard Seed Fukuoka on the last Sunday of the trip. I sat in my seat, tired and unexpectant, waiting for the service to start. That’s when a young Japanese man sat down to my left.  

He was kind and spoke English very well, so we chatted for a bit. I soon learned that he was a 29‑year‑old named Yugawa, who had graduated from the National Defense Academy of Japan, served in the military, and then began a career in equity trading, where he now works.  

“Do you always come to this church?” I asked him.  

“No,” he said. “This is my first time.”  

I followed with “Have you ever been to any church before?”  

“No,” he said. “This is my first time. I’m an atheist.”  

By this point, my curiosity had grown. In a country where Christianity is so rare that many have never heard the name of Jesus, I wondered what could possibly lead someone like Yugawa to step into a church for the first time.   

I wondered what strategic church outreach event might have affected him, what meaningful conversation with a believer he might have had, or what passage of Scripture he might have come across online. So I asked, “How did you hear about this church?”  

When I asked the question, my limited mind wondered what tangible, earthly reason might have led Yugawa here. However, through Yugawa’s response, the Lord reminded me to shift my focus toward what the Lord can do, has done, and will keep doing.  

Yugawa said, “This morning when I was meditating, I heard something say, ‘Don’t you want to be on the right side?’ and I said yes. Somehow I knew that that meant I had to go here.” 

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him…” — John 6:44a 

Yugawa had never heard the Gospel. He had never looked at the pages, or even the cover, of a Bible. He had never heard the name of Jesus Christ. Yet he knew that he had to spend his day at a Christian church that he didn’t know existed before that morning.  

In the few minutes we had between meeting each other and the start of the service, we talked about what the Bible is and where it came from, the Gospel narrative that’s woven throughout it from beginning to end, and the person of Jesus Christ Who brings it all together and makes it directly relevant to our lives today.  

The service began, and Yugawa witnessed a congregation of believers worship their holy God together in both Japanese and English. Then Pastor David delivered a powerful and countercultural message on conflict. Yugawa, I, and everyone else in the room heard the Gospel and were called to handle sin seriously, extend grace to others, and forgive unconditionally as Jesus would.  

The message was followed by communion, during which Pastor David called the Christians in the room to faithfully obey Christ’s command to remember and challenged the non‑believers to consider what stands between them and their Creator.  

After the closing song, Yugawa chatted with our team over lunch and decided to return to the church for their “first steps” class, where he began building a foundation for Christian faith in his own language. Our team then had to head toward our train, but Yugawa and I exchanged phone numbers before we split.  

A week later, I reached out to see if he had gone to church again. He had, and he brought his sister. Each day since we met, I’ve prayed for Yugawa’s salvation, fully expecting the Lord to provide. I am confident that someday soon I will receive a message confirming that the Lord has drawn my friend completely to Himself.  

Lessons from the Lord  

Through this simple but sweet experience, the Lord affirmed some things about Himself: 

1. The Lord reminded me that the work is His.

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” — 1 Corinthians 3:6–7 

I went into our trip thinking about strategy: how to reach people, how to communicate cross‑culturally, how to share the Gospel in a place where it’s unfamiliar. None of my efforts would have led a self‑described atheist, who had never heard the name of Jesus, to wake up one morning and feel compelled to walk into a church he hadn’t known existed that morning.

We know that the Lord always does the heavy lifting, but I think that Christians sometimes like to credit themselves or others for bringing people to Christ. Not a single person could try to take any credit for Yugawa’s salvation.

2. The Lord demonstrated that He has the power to do it all Himself, yet He chose to use His Church.

“And He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
— Ephesians 4:11–12 

As the Lord spoke through Yugawa’s meditation, He could have unloaded the full truth of the Gospel. Instead, He said, “Go, be a part of the Body of Christ.” He doesn’t save the world in a vacuum. He saves the world through His people, like those who reside in the quiet, faithful presence of a local church that stands as a lighthouse in a spiritually dark place. The Church and its members’ love for one another is one of the most powerful witnesses there is. 

3. Finally, the Lord reminded me that the Gospel is transcendent.

“So shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” — Isaiah 55:11 

Japan is culturally unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. It is shaped by a unique language, a distinct spiritual history, and deeply ingrained worldviews. Yet the Gospel is universal. When shared faithfully, it speaks to the human condition with God‑given authority. This is true in Fukuoka and around the world, including in your own life.

The Mission We All Share  

The same God who stirred the heart of a young man in Fukuoka is stirring hearts in our own neighborhoods, workplaces, and families. The same Spirit who whispered to Yugawa in meditation is speaking to people right where we live, in our offices and classrooms, on our streets, and around our own tables.  

The same Gospel that crossed cultural, linguistic, and historical boundaries for Yugawa is the Gospel we carry with us every day. Japan and the rest of the world need faithful Christians to bring the Gospel, and some of us must go there. The Lord may or may not ask you to move to Japan, but He has already asked you to join Him in His mission. 

To join His mission, we need to focus on finding greater joy in Him.   

Humanity has been afforded complete access to our Creator, and we have been blessed with access to that message. The gift that Japan unknowingly hungers for is the gift that Christians have already received. We shouldn’t take that for granted. A relationship with Christ is infinite in length, depth, and breadth, and it ought to be intimately pursued daily.  

Through that relationship, Christ will lead us to do more. He may lead you to go to your neighbors, or to go to the nations. He may lead you to give so that others can go. Every one of these paths, though, begins in the same place: prayer. God drew Yugawa to Himself before anyone said a word to him. Ask Him to do the same for someone in your life, and for the people of Japan. 

Join Our Global Prayer Team

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  — 2 Corinthians 5:20 

REFERENCES:  

1. Japan Mission. “Need in Japan.” Japan Mission, https://japanmission.org/about-us/need-in-japan/. Accessed 23 June 2026 
2. Mustard Seed Network. “Why Japan.” Mustard Seed Network, https://www.mustardseed.network/why-japan. Accessed 23 June 2026.