The People of the Rising Sun: Raising Up Christians in Japan

With over 124 million people, Japan is the second largest unreached people group in the world. Despite 400 years of missionary efforts, only 1% of the population are Christians. But, with God’s help, anything is possible when we step out in faith and trust in His promise to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth.

For Marc and Yumiko Leis, these numbers are the motivation and inspiration for their 33 years of ministry in Japan.

In the summer of 1986, Marc remembers God calling him to the people of Japan through a promise he read in Isaiah 45:5b-6: “I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting people may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other” (NIV).

Marc noted that the “Rising of the Sun” is the literal translation of “Nippon” — Japan’s name for itself — and that the Lord was beckoning him to take part in the fulfillment of His promise: for the people of the rising sun to know there is no other God.

Since then, Marc and Yumiko have dedicated their lives and ministry to the Japanese community, and they’ve witnessed the Lord’s faithfulness as they’ve gradually built momentum for Christ. In the past six years alone, Marc and Yumiko have entered into a new phase of ministry, engaging with local university students and working with churches to train leaders in discipleship, and it has been a pivotal and rewarding time in their ministry.

“This season has been the most fruitful of our 33 years here in Japan — we’ve seen more students come to Christ, grow in follow-up, and stick around to be discipled than any other time,” Marc says. “After so many years of preparing the soil and planting seeds, we are finally seeing the fruit of others take root and produce their own fruit in natural multiplication.”

Walking in the Highs and Lows of Community

A large part of Marc and Yumiko’s ministry is not only sharing Jesus, but intentionally doing life and living in the highs and lows of those in their community. Two such people that the Leis have poured into over a number of years are Mr. Fujimoto* and Ms. Jinnouchi*.

The Leis originally met Mr. Fujimoto when he was a young man, and he would come to their house to participate in student activities and occasional Sunday fellowship meetings. In 2007, Mr. Fujimoto was hit by a truck — he barely survived and was paralyzed from the waist down. After the accident, the Leis continued to meet with Mr. Fujimoto, especially as he struggled with why God would allow something like this to happen to him.

Several years later, he started coming to church and decided to place this trust in Jesus. Still to this day, Mr. Fujimoto has had a difficult time reconciling his suffering, but Marc has met him in those spaces, sharing stories of his own hardships over the years.

“It was so important to him that I shared my own struggles and doubts, but also the promises that Jesus gives us that nothing can snatch us out of His hands and that nothing can separate us from the love of God,” Marc says. “It’s times like this that small group or one-on-one time is so important!”

Similarly, the Leis have been actively pouring into their Japanese neighbor, Ms. Jinnouchi, in the midst of a difficult season. Four years ago, Ms. Jinnouchi asked Marc to tutor her in English. At first, Marc was reluctant, but he felt the Spirit urging him to make time, and they’ve met weekly since then. The Leis have tried to introduce Ms. Jinnouchi to Jesus over the years, inviting her to church events and having her read parts of a children’s picture Bible in English and Japanese as part of her lessons.

This past year, Ms. Jinnouchi discovered that she had Stage Three breast cancer. Immediately, Marc and Yumiko went to her house and asked to pray over her. “As I did, she started crying,” Marc remembers. “No one had ever prayed for her in her life!”

In the midst of her cancer treatment, Marc felt led to share The Bridge to Life Illustration with her. For Ms. Jinnouchi, this was the first time she had ever heard the gospel — that God wants a relationship with her and died for her sins. Though Ms. Jinnouchi desires to believe in God’s purpose for her life, she still isn’t quite ready to give her life to Christ, but the Leis continue to patiently walk with her in Life-to-life^® community as she navigates the road ahead.

Sharing the Gospel Through “The Chosen”

Another way that the Leis have creatively started faith conversations is through watching “The Chosen” TV show with university students and members of their community. Marc works as an English teacher at Tokoha (Buddhist) University and Shizuoka Ken Dai University, and he’s been inviting his 65 students to local churches to watch the show throughout each semester.

“I want to use ‘The Chosen,’ large outreach events like 4th of July and Christmas, and events in our home to draw students into relationship with us and with Jesus,” Marc says. “Our prayer is that their interest would be stirred up and they would want to take a further step to get to know Him.”

Through the screenings, students have been exposed to who Jesus is — many for the first time. After the show is done, Marc will open up questions about faith and dive deeper into Jesus’s character, His Words in the Bible, and how the students can have a relationship with Him personally. For all of them, it is the first time they have ever read the Bible for themselves. 

One night, after watching an episode where Jesus asked Niccodemus to “follow him,” most of the students said that if Jesus asked them directly, they would follow Him too!

Long-lasting Transformation

Marc and Yumiko’s ministry is in the midst of an exciting and fruitful time, and these stories are just a few of the many life-changing relationships they’ve built over their decades-long work in Japan. The Leis are an example of the perseverance of discipleship — that through the daily building of trust and connection in their community, lives are being transformed for the gospel.

“Our focus is to love and serve them in Jesus’ name, helping them find out more about Him if they want to know more,” Marc says. “The results are up to Him, and this way takes more time than other methods of evangelism. But, when they choose for themselves, the results are long-lasting.”

Please join us in praying over Marc and Yumiko’s ministry, for God’s presence in the lives of Mr. Fujimoto, Ms. Jinnouchi, and their student community, as they continue to faithfully work towards the fulfillment of God’s promises in Japan.

*Names have been changed for privacy.

Discipleship Tip:

Marc and Yumiko have found creative ways to share the gospel in their community, such as watching “The Chosen” TV show as a way to open up conversations and questions. Think of unique ways that you could gather people in your community in order to share Jesus.