One of the 'major modern mission misses' (can we call these '4Ms'?) of our time is the huge disparity between the highly-wired, tech-loving Japanese population, and the searing lack of online evangelism in the Japanese language.
For instance, YouTube popularity is exploding in Japan, comments 'Pacific Rim Media' blog:
"YouTube's user base is growing more quickly in Japan than any of the other major websites, including Yahoo Japan, Amazon.co.jp or Wikipedia.org, according to the latest report by Internet research firm NetRatings Japan. Even though it does not have a separate Japanese-language version, last month YouTube notched up its 10 millionth Japanese visitor after just 14 months - one-fifth of the nation's entire home Internet users.
"IMPLICATION: If more and more Japanese are going to YouTube and viewing videos, how could we use this low cost medium to reach Japanese?"
BLOGOSPHERE ALIVE WITH THE SOUND OF MUSINGS - 70 million of them...
Three new blogs start, every second! Of course, similar numbers probably fade away too. The remarkable thing is that of the total of 70 million, the largest language grouping is Japanese, with 37%. English is in second place, with Chinese third:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1620557.ece
This highlights to us yet again, the strategic significance of the Web for Japan. It's a highly-wired, technically-minded, prosperous country. Many Japanese cannot read English sufficiently well to use English-medium websites. And church growth has been depressingly minimal. Most Japanese have a benign indifference to the Christian message, and statistically are unlikely to know a Christian personally, or see Christianity modelled within the community of a local fellowship.
The Web, therefore, could be uniquely strategic in starting millions of Japanese on a spiritual journey, using 'bridge strategy' topics within websites, blogs and video clips.
© Web Evangelism Guide web-evangelism.com, used with permission
1 comment:
Great post! I also noticed a new video site which has a suprising amount of Japanese stuff on it too at http://www.stage6.com
So much of it is Japanese Anime and Jpop. The high speed connection in Japan is a major contributor, allowing Japanese to watch high quality videos online. We are looking to put some of our Jesus Lifehouse sermons on their too in the hope of catching some of these surfers. (BTW, it's free to upload unlimited videos of upto 2GB)
Dave
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