Many Christian leaders are dreaming that God would multiply his church in Japan so that everyone has easy access to a church—one for every community. That would mean more than 50,000 churches. There were fewer than 8,000 Protestant churches in 2021.¹

Japanese people are the world’s second largest unreached people group.² One of the primary strategies for evangelizing people groups is planting churches that reproduce to plant more churches. But many places still need their first church.

Challenges include limited numbers of leaders and resources, and overwhelming needs within existing churches. Church planting cannot easily be done alone, but many pastors struggle to find like-minded lay people to join them or to commit to outreach. They also need networks that can support them through the difficult initial stages.

But there are some encouraging examples of church planting movements. The Japan Church Growth Institute has helped set up about 30 church planting networks across Japan. This has led to more than 160 new churches since 1996.³ Another network in Tokyo started with one church in 2010 and grew to ten within the decade.