Thomas Schirrmacher together with his wife Prof Dr Christine Schirrmacher, WEA’s spokesperson on Islamic Affairs, and his daughter Dr Esther Schirrmacher, visited the headquarter of the Japan Evangelical Association, the member evangelical alliance from Japan in the Asian Evangelical Alliance and the World Evangelical Alliance. The day spent with JAE included a special session of two hours with the board and staff of JEA and the the Chair and the Secretary of the Japan Lausanne Committee.
The Chairman of the board of JAE, Reverend Toshinori Ishida, pointed out, that it was the first every visit of a Secretary General of WEA to Japan and that this time, the SG would even come twice, as he would return in two weeks time as speaker for The Seventh Japan Congress on Evangelism (“JEC7”) in Gifu, Japan, the largest pastors and missions conference in Japan, taking place every seven years.
“As a G-7 country, Japan is one of the most important industrial nations in Asia. But in economically strong Japan, Christians are only a small minority among the many religious groups (especially Buddhism and Shintoism). And this despite the fact that the Gospel came to Japan some 500 years ago. Throughout these years, many missionaries have preached the gospel with sweat and tears. Therefor I call upon you to pray for Japan so that our country will turn back to our Lord Jesus.”
Toshinori Ishida Chairman of the Board, Japan Evangelical Association (JEA)
Present at the meeting were Rev. Isao Mizuguchi (Chairman of the JEA), Rev. Takahito Iwagami, General Secretary of JEA, Rev. James Hisao Tanabe (Executive Council member of the Asia Evangelical Alliance), Rev. Toshinori Ishida (Chairman of the JCE7), the board members of JEA Rev. Naoyuki Kawashima, Rev. Hiroo Kambe, Rev. Shinobu Yamazaki, Rev. Dr. Billy Nishioka (Asia Theological Association), (ex-Board member of the JEA), Rev. Dr. Toshionori Kurasawa (Chairman Lausanne Committee Japan), and Ms. Atsuko Tateishiwere (Secretary Lausanne Committee Japan).
A central topic was evangelism in large cities and metro areas, as half of the Japanese live in three metro areas. Tokyo is the largest metro area in the world with close to 40 million people. Interestingly Tokyo („Edo” at that time) already was the first city in the world to rise to one million people in 1721 – the second largest city at that time was London with 630.000 people in the metro area.
JEA was established in 1968. It grew out of the foreign missionaries organized in the Japan Evangelical Mission Association (JEMA), which still is an important affiliate of JEA. still missionaries played a key role in order to unite the evangelical. This is also reflected in the fact that the office of JEA is in the The Ochanomizu Christian Center, where also the meeting took place.
The Ochanomizu Christian Center (2-1 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo), is not only the seat of JEA, but of many Christian and Evangelical groups and churches. It is closely connected to the evangelical history in Japan, and the diligent work of American missionaries in Japan directly after the end of the war. The land was already bought in 1949, the first offices were dedicated in 1955. In 1967 the Billy Graham Tokyo International Convention was involved with a major enlargement. 1994 the Ochanomizu Bible Institute was instituted in the building. The OCC is easy to reach, as it is opposite of the central JR Ochanomizu train and subway station.
The JAE publishes twice a year an English bulletin „Japan Update“ (https://jeanet.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Japan-Update-84_layout3rd.pdf)
LINKS:
Japan Update
Japan Lausanne Committee
