Mission: Japan 2026

Land of the rising Son

By GARY FALLESEN, Climbing For Christ founder

I am reading constantly. And watching. You can take the journalist out of the newsroom, as God did at the end of 2006 when He called me into ministry full-time, but you can’t take the newsroom out of the former journalist.

Read, watch, listen. Observe. Just add discernment and you have a newspaperman-turned-missionary, one who used to deliver news of the world but now spreads the Good News of Jesus Christ.

I went to Japan in 2022, not seeking another place to serve but only to visit a Climbing For Christ member. Then God gave me a heart for Japan. I began to pay attention to that country, prayerfully considering making it part of the Climbing For Christ world.

I watched Radical ministry’s documentary Hard to Reach: Japan. I prayed with Operation World for Japan. I recognized the lostness.

“In Japan, less than 1% of the population is Christian. Not because the Gospel is illegal – but because it’s unknown. Many Japanese people have never met a believer, never opened a Bible, never even heard the name of Jesus in conversation. The issue isn’t rejection – it’s absence.” – Radical ministry

“Spiritual powers and principalities in Japan hinder the Gospel. The powers associated with idolatry in temples and ancestor worship in homes remain strong. Many Japanese claim no religion but actually follow some rituals of Buddhism and Shintoism. Even the idea of a Creator God is foreign to Japanese worldview.” – Operation World

Japan: 122,781,000 total population; 120,523,000 (98.2%) population unreached. – Joshua Project

But as I studied and began asking questions, I faced pushback. Christians in Japan, specifically expatriates, told me Japan was not “unreached.”

However, the father of one acquaintance, a missionary, said: “God has His messengers about and if we are praying for the unreached the Lord lets us meet them. I suppose the Lord will come when the last tribe gets the Gospel (Mathew 24:14). But He's not bound to come straight away.”

A C4C member in Japan finally suggested: “One thing you can do is stop reading articles about Japan that say the same thing article writers have been saying about Japan for as long as I can remember. Like I’ve said before, they have been beating the same stats at least since I was in college studying Japanese and wondering what to do about Japan. When I was younger, I too fell for the ‘unreached’ image that was presented by visiting writers. But it’s not entirely true and it could potentially set people up for disappointment or discouragement.

“I think you guys should just come here. Just come with no plans other than to meet other Christians here. Visit churches, make new connections with people and get a taste of what the Body of Christ looks like here.”

So, that’s what we will do. We are GO-ing, observing, praying, discerning. We will hike some trails; talk to Japanese people we meet – Christians and most likely non-Christians. The bottom line is there are nearly 123 million people and perhaps only slightly more than 2 million Christians. That spells unreached to me.

HERE AM I. SEND ME! We will GO in March. This trip can be done in conjunction with Mission: Philippines 2026 or on its own. Email info@ClimbingForChrist.org if you are interested in serving a hard-to-reach people who may or may not have heard the Gospel before.