“God is moving powerfully in Japan, the doors are open, and the time to step into God’s call has never been clearer for us. Now is the time, I believe, to take action and step into Japan.”

Senior Pastor of Victory Family Centre and strategic coordinator for Love Japan, Jeremy Seaward declared this at the LoveSingapore Summit held in January in Kuala Lumpur. “Blessing the nations” is one of three strategic priorities of LoveSingapore.

Love Japan is a unity and prayer movement of churches in Japan with a strong desire to see their nation won for Jesus. 

In 2019, after LoveSingapore met with leaders in six key cities in Japan, the vision for Love Japan was launched with a 120 pastors and leaders in Singapore: To serve and love Japan through partnerships, evangelism and church planting. 

LoveSingapore identified 20 top cities in Japan to reach, with a goal of planting 100 churches.

“Out of the 20 targeted cities, already 14 have been adopted, and we have 24 church plants, either underway or about to start in Japan,” Ps Jeremy told the gathering at the Summit.

“We’re a quarter of the way there, we got a ways to go, but I believe God’s with us. This is already a great step and great momentum. There are signs of momentum all over Japan right now, every region of Japan that we identified actually has cities adopted and church planting underway,” he added.

In 2024, a LoveJapan vision trip took place in May in Tokyo. 

LoveSingapore set a target for 20 cities in Japan to be reached and 100 churches planted. Fourteen of the cities have been reached and 24 churches started.

“I really believe this sparked a turning point,” said Ps Jeremy.

“We took 70 pastors from Singapore and we met with about 70 Japanese pastors, and had a powerful time of unity and prayer for the nation.

“After that, we spread out across the regions of Japan and the Singaporean pastors went to different regions to hear what God was saying, to see how God was moving there, and explore what they could do to be part of this vision, to reach Japan and see churches planted.”

There will be another trip to Japan this year, from May 19 to 23, which Ps Jeremy encourage the Summit attendees to join.

“What step will you take to see God’s Kingdom advance in Japan?” he challenged. “There are times to walk and there are times to run, and in Japan, it’s time to run!”

Two pastors – Andre Tan, Lead Pastor of The City and Senior Pastor of River Community Church, Samuel Phun – shared their own experiences in and revelations about Japan.

Ps Andre Tan: “Japan isn’t a graveyard; it’s ready for harvest”

I was asked to share my personal experience with the vision trip in May last year.

Now I want to be really honest with you. When I first heard of Love Japan, I was really skeptical. I thought: “What a good way to use our missions budget to go Japan to eat sushi and go on a family trip.”

The Lord really put in my heart an unexplainable burden and ache and I have no explanation for it. For other context, my wife is half Japanese, and so the last time I felt an ache for Japan was when I was courting her. So it’s a really strange experience.

So I was on this wonderful trip with a team of pastors and leaders, and we spent a bunch of time together in the Kyushu region. We met with local pastors, missionaries and labourers, who were doing amazing work in that region. And I just want to share a few key moments and takeaways from the trip.

Now, I went to this trip with plenty of assumptions, and one of those things that I thought was that Japan is often regarded to be the missionary graveyard, right? It’s thought to be this spiritually barren case where seeds rarely take root. But those assumptions were quickly overturned in this particular meeting.

We were gathering as pastors and leaders in Tokyo, and God’s presence was very tangible. And those pastors were not who I imagined them to be. Well, I thought that our main pastors were just tired and burnt out and discouraged and not wanting to do ministry anymore. They were on fire for the Gospel. They carried such a deep conviction that God was at work.

In Japan, God was moving. Many of the missionaries who met their shared stories of how people were coming to faith in remarkable ways on the streets, the openness of the gospel was evident. That was right now. Many were spiritually curious.

They also told us stories of people experiencing depression. There were these high rates of loneliness, and there was this deep hunger for community, and the church was stepping in to meet them.

So Japan isn’t a graveyard, it’s a field ready for harvest. With possibility and hope.

Now, all the pastors that we spoke to cited being depressed over the years. They are lonely. Christianity in Japan stands at 1.6%, and so pastors form a minority of the minority – the super minority. And in our coming, they will tell us: ‘Thank you for coming.” They will tell us things like: “This reminds us that God has not forgotten us, that God has not forgotten Japan”.

We really interacted with them. They weren’t taught in the realms of partnerships, like: “Let’s do things together; let’s explore initiatives together.”

Ps Andre Tan of The City was moved by the humility and hunger of the Japanese pastors during the vision trip in May 2024.

Instead, they begged for us to send workers to help them save Japan. And we know Japan to be an honour-shame culture, and so this was deeply moving to me, because this is humility. This true humility was not born out of inferiority, but it was born out of deep conviction that God was indeed at work amongst them.

Now, another significant moment was witnessing this beautiful exchange between two local pastors. These two pastors to me were as different as different could be. One was young and charismatic, and the other was like an older Baptist pastor in a suit. On paper they couldn’t be more different, but they had such a deep love and bond.

The younger pastor shared how he had been through a really difficult season in life and ministry and he was depressed. He said this older pastor would visit him day after day and read Scripture to him, sing to him, and in a sense, spiritually nursed him back to health. And the younger pastor ended the sharing pointing at the old pastor and said: “I will die for him.”

Now, we love unity in the Singapore church, but in many network contexts, unity looks like collaboration. It looks like gathering around a particular initiative, conference or programme. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but I think there’s a depth of unity that far surpasses and supersedes all of that function or utility. And this is the kind of unity that I witnessed in Japan.

It reminds me of words of Jesus, when He said: “Greater love has no one than this who laid down one’s life for one’s friends.”

Now, at the end of the trip, I spent some time in Nagasaki with Pastor Eugene Seow and we visited several museums: We visited the Atomic Bomb Museum, but we also visited the 26 Martyrs Museum and Monument – it commemorates 26 Christians who were executed in 1597 for their faith.

I was particularly moved by this story of a 12-year-old boy, Luis Ibaraki. It is said that he did not stop praising God, even as his ears were being cut off. He did not renounce his faith.

Now Christians have been systematically persecuted in Japan for hundreds of years, and Tertullian once said this, that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

And as I think about Japan, I think the blood still cries out. The Lamb is yet due the reward of His suffering. Christian blood has been spilled everywhere, and we’ve seen a measure of its fruit. But I believe not yet in Japan, or not so in full measure.

And I sought to the study the great revivals all through human history. And while the term “revival” is often used, there are certain traits that always perceive an outpouring of Spirit: Openness to the Gospel, humility, unity and sacrifice.

And so from all that seen and heard, to me, both rationally and spiritually, I’m deeply convinced and convicted that Japan is on the verge of a revival, of a spiritual outpouring.

And so I want to invite you to join the next mission trip, to come and see what God is bringing about in this land, to join in his story. 

How a vision of a bridge opened Japanese hearts: Ps Samuel Phun

I’ve been ministering in Japan since 2016, so every year I’ve been going there, I spend about three to four months there every year to do training for the pastors and churches.

Japan is ready, guys.

I’m going to bring up something here to encourage you to go for the vision trip.

I’ve got four experiences, encounters (about Japan). It all started in 1993: I was in a room doing my missiology and I went into – I think you call it a trance. I saw a map.

I don’t what country it is. Then I saw perspex came over the thing. And from the top blood came down and covered the thing.

So after that, I thought: “What does this mean?” I went to talk to my dean, and he said: “Can you draw the picture?” I drew out this map. He looked at me. He brought me to this big wall with a map and he said: “This is Japan.”

Wow! So I go back and tell my wife: “Japan will be washed in the blood of Jesus!” Oh, my wife and me went to buy suitcase, sell our flat.

I went to look for Pastor Derek (Hong), because his church sent missionaries to Japan. He was very kind to me, very affirming. But he looked at me and said: “But I don’t feel it, Samuel.”

I spoke to the missionaries there, they tell me: “Don’t come lah, I tell you. Come here you cannot tahan one.”

In 1993, Ps Samuel Phun of River Community Church receive a vision of this image and blood flowing down over it. Today, he ministers in Japan 3 to 4 months every year.

So God was speaking to me, but no doors opened. So I waited and waited, and then in 2014, I had forgotten about Japan, and I saw the vision again. 

Suddenly two people come to me and say: “You must go to Japan. Your kind of ministry – they need it.” But I got no contact, no nothing.

Somebody connected me to one guy, and this fellow said: “Can you come to Japan? Come to Kansai region. I’m overseeing all the pastors here. Can you come and talk to the pastors?”

Oh, I got excited. So I went to Japan. And that was at 2016. But in 2014, God spoke to me about something. The Lord told me this, that there will be four stages and when they hit stage four, the hearts of the Japanese people will be open.

And He said this: “You must prepare the Japanese Church.” (The Japanese Church) has 300 years of culture: You have Japanese churches and  international churches, but they love one another. 

“You must prepare. I will open the door for you,” the Lord told me that, and I saw a vision (of a disaster: A ship has crashed into a bridge).

So I went there, I was invited to speak to the pastors. I was very excited. I went to tell them: “God tell me this. Oh, I saw a vision. But I don’t know where is this bridge.”

After the whole meeting, the pastor look at me and says: “Sam Sensei, very, very sorry. Japan many, many, many disaster.”

I came back to Singapore. I thought it’s finished. But five months later that pastor, who is a cabinet member right now, he says: “Can I come and visit you?” I said: “Come.”

So he came and saw me before he left. He bowed very low and said: “Please, come to Japan.” And I said: “Okay.” And then he keep looking at me. I didn’t know he wanted a name card. I don’t understand Japanese culture. I take his card and that’s how it started. 

And guess what happened two years later? 2018, it happened – the ship.

They started calling me: “Sam Sensei, is this what you’re talking about?” Then they started sending me photos. I said: “Hey, this is the picture!” So their hearts begin to be open.

Ps Sam urged Summit attendees to join in the vision trip that will happen May 19 to 23 this year, and to be a harvest worker in Japan.

God is really moving. And it’s been 10 years. 

I hear two school of pastors in Singapore. One is “We met the local pastors. Come back, nothing happened.” Of course, nothing happened.

Because, like what I say, I minister there every year, I go for three, four months (each time).

Last year when Bill Wilson called me, I called the Japanese pastors, I said: “I spoken to Bill Wilson. Do you want? I said, all these are fantastic preachers.”

They said: “We want you.” You ask me why, I don’t know. Japanese culture.

After five years, they tell me: “Oh, because Sam Sensei, you’re looking like the Japanese after five years.”

So please go and visit Japan. Go and plant a church there. Don’t be sucked in by some parts of the culture. What they are doing is they have been running their effective church planting for two years.

Because as time passes, culture change; when culture change, techniques must change, but principles remain.

I feel that the modern way of church planting is very different from the old-school long-term visionary. So please don’t wait for them to respond.

And the second group of pastors, I hear them say: “So many churches there, where must we start new one?”

Eh, bro, humble yourself lah.

Japan is not like Singapore. They are different. You go in, you do your thing, but the Japanese pastors will love you. I confirm. I confirm.

Why? Because just do what God wants you to do. So please go, go this May.

Please don’t waste time. If you’ve never been, go to Japan.

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