On Japanese Bibles (in English) Part 3: The Only Japanese Thinline Bible

In my previous posts on this topic I discussed the some of the challenges and limitations of Bible design and publishing in Japan. Before reading this post, I encourage you to refer back to parts one and two to understand the current state of Japanese bible publishing, and my motives for writing these articles.

ハンディーバイブル　NI-34H, NI-34DCH, NI-43H, NI43H-AP

 

In my previous post I alluded to the fact that there is a type of bible that seems mysteriously absent from the Japanese market, namely, the thinline format of bible. In the United States, every major bible publisher offers their bibles in the thinline size.

I probably wouldn't be going too far out on a limb to say that thinline bibles are among, if not, the best selling bibles in the American market. Crossway has stated such in its own marketing of their thinline edition of the ESV, stating, "The top-selling ESV Thinline Bible is ideal for use at home and on the go." 

Thinline bibles attempt to optimize for readability and portability in several ways; they usually use a two-column format, a paragraph typographical setting, thinner margins and letting (the space between lines), and thinner paper. The end result is a bible that at the spine is usually an inch or less while maintaining an 8 to 9 point font. 

Thinline bibles generally refer to any bible with these characteristics with an A5 or larger footprint with a spine-width of an inch or less. There are compact and personal sized bibles that are just as thin, but the dimensions of a thinline bible tend to mean that it has a larger footprint, but a thinner profile, while maintaining a medium or large font for readability.

The Handy Bible with a compact ESV Pitt Minion

 

In the case of most American thinline bibles, they tend to start at about 8.25 inches (21cm) by 5.25 inches (13.3cm), and an inch or less wide (2.5cm).  Large-print thinlines can routinely balloon up to 9in by 6in.

The A5 size of paper (21cm x 14.8cm) commonly used in Japanese publishing is considered to be on the larger side, and bibles published at this size are routinely called such, that is, large sized.

The Handy Bible and ESV Pitt Minion compared

 

However, a large sized Japanese bible printed on A5 tends to run well over 2000 pages, and are consistently between 5 and 6 cm, or two inches wide. In fact, most Japanese bibles are two or more inches wide, which is why in the previous posts I lovingly referred to them as bricks.

Good, Fast, or Cheap

Someone once explained that many important decisions have to find compromise between being good, being fast, or being cheap. One can have good and fast, but it is going to be expensive. One can have Good and cheap, but it is going to take a long time, One can have fast and cheap, but the quality is going to suffer. Regardless, there is always going to be compromise. The best is often the enemy of the good. 

The Handy Bible profile vs. the Pitt Minion

One of the challenges with creating a small and portable bible for the Japanese market has been the nature of the Japanese writing system. Japanese is traditionally written top to bottom, right to left. Added to that is the need to have wider letting, or space between the lines to accommodate rubi/furigana pronunciations of the kanji (chinese characters). Also, Japanese writing does not traditionally use paragraphs.

Most Japanese bibles balloon to over 2000 pages as a result of trying to accommodate this style of writing (tategaki). Japanese-English bilingual bibles, and study bibles tend to make room by switching over to a western writing orientation (yokogaki) and incorporating paragraphs. 

In order to make compact bibles for the Japanese market, both the Japanese Bible Society (who publish The New Interconfessional Translation) and Word of Life Press (who publish the New Japanese Version, inspired by the NASB) both created compact bibles that simply shrunk the font size to accommodate a smaller footprint; but the page numbers tended to stay the same. The compromise in creating a compact bible that most Japanese publishers have routinely chosen is font size, which is unfortunate considering that some Japanese kanji can have dozens of tiny brush-strokes which are hard to discern at small sizes.

I was recently at a city-wide prayer gathering with pastors and leaders from around the area, including a middle aged Anglican priest. He brought a A6 sized compact bible to read from, and as a result, had to hold it inches from his face in order to read it--and he still struggled to read it out loud. Most compact Japanese bibles are unpleasant to read.

The large-sized Handy Bible & the Bible+

 

In the case of bible publishing, 'good, fast, or cheap,' can be exchanged for something like, 'page size, font size, page count.' 

You can have a bible that has a smaller page size and a more legible font, but it is going to necessitate more pages. You can have less pages, and a small page size, but the font is going to be microscopic. There has been little innovation among Japanese bible publishers to address this issue.

That was until the Japanese Bible Society introduced the Handy Bible (ハンディーバイブル NI-34H). In 1988, the Japanese Bible Society decided to try something different. They had an ambitious goal of fitting two pages worth of text from their New Interconfessional Translation onto one page, in western style paragraph format, and keeping the pagination with the rest of their series of bibles in tact. The result was the relatively slim Handy Bible (sometimes referred to in the early days as the Half-Volume Bible ハーフボリュームバイブル, a name they would recycle later for a different project).

I don't have any specific sales numbers from the Japanese Bible Society, but a quick look at the used book market shows that the Handy Bible was one of their best sellers; still in print today.

The Handy Bible without the apocrypha checks in at a very slim 991 pages and right at 2.5cm; it is quite an accomplishment considering the constraints they had to work with (including their self-imposed goal of keeping the same pagination as their other bibles). 

Handy Bible vs. B6 Half-Volume Bible

 

However, the NI-34H Handy Bible (and the NI-34DCH, with Apocrypha) are both printed on B6 paper (17.6cm x 12.5cm; 7in x 5in), putting it into what I would consider the compact bible family. The Handy Bible is more or less the same size as a Cambridge Pitt Minion, although a cm wider and not quite as legible font-wise. 

I was originally planning on writing about the missed opportunity of not publishing the Handy Bible in a A5 size, and thus creating a true thinline bible in the traditional sense; only to find out that back in the late 90's, early 2000's they did a very limited run of the NI-43H and NI-43DCH which are a A5 version (large-size) of the Handy Bible.

An A5 Handy Bible, if you can find one, might set you back as much as $100 USD, despite their original $25 price tag. I spent the better part of three months searching for one, only to get my hands on a heavily used one for about $10. 

The NI-43H is, to my knowledge, the only bible ever produced by a Japanese publishing company that could be considered a true thinline bible. It is the ideal size for a bible, in a format that is readable with a font size, that although small is quite readable. I have my own theory that the NI-43H was dead on arrival largely because of a marketing issue. It was marketed as a 'large bible,' because of its A5 footprint, which in the minds of Japanese Christians likely conjured up images of a heavy desk bound reference bible. 

Ghosting compared. L: The Bible+, R: NI-43H

 

The NI-43H likely needed to be rebranded as something else. Maybe something reminiscent of the english branding term 'thinline.' The term thinline, despite being used by Japanese guitar manufacturers for lightweight electric guitars, isn't exactly easy to pronounce in Japanese, becoming something like sheen-rhyne. It also doesn't mean anything in particular. I'm sure someone with creativity could come up with a catchy term to describe a thinline bible for the Japanese market.

A Buried Treasure

In a strange turn of events, despite creating possibly the most portable and readable bible ever by a Japanese publishing company, the Japanese Bible Society seems to have squandered its potential and more or less kicked it to the curb. One can actually find old comments online by Japanese Christians lamenting the demise or lack of availability of the A5 Handy Bible.

The A5 large sized NI-43H Handy Bible is as close to the ideal balance between page size, font size, and page number that a Japanese bible has ever come. Obviously, without being constrained by the need to conform to the pagination of the other New Interconfession bibles, they could have added a couple hundred more pages, formatted the text slightly differently and increased the font size and boldness significantly with little effort making something truly spectacular.

Sample of the glossy color pages from The Bible+

After being buried and forgotten for a decade, in 2009 the Japanese Bible Society dusted it off again and re-issued it as the NI43H-AP and NI43DCH-AP, 'The Bible+.' The Bible+ was a collaboration between the Japanese Bible Society and the Italian Bible Society which saw over a hundred pages of glossy color illustrations and photos added to the front and back of the bible, with the hopes of helping young people understand the bible better. A laudable goal. 

They decided to use the NI-43H  text block, but in the process somehow printed it on the least opaque bible paper I have ever come across. The bleed through and ghosting on 'The Bible+' are some of the worst I have ever seen (unfortunately meaning it isn't a great candidate for a bible re-bind sans the color pages). Not only that, by adding a hard cover and over 100 pages of glossy color paper to the bible, they added a bunch of unnecessary bulk, and took away the main feature that made the NI-43H such an amazing bible, its size and portability.

The Bible+ had a noble goal of introducing the bible to younger Japanese who were not familiar with much of the cultural or historic context in which the bible was written; but its execution leaves a lot to be desired. The use of the large-size Handy Bible was probably the right choice all things considered, but the quality leaves a lot to be desired, and a slightly higher GSM paper might have made it a much better finished product.

A review from Amazon of The Bible+

 

In 2024, the Handy Bible in the B6 size is still available from the Japanese Bible Society; and they have attempted at least two other projects, including one with Royal Jongbloed and one with the Korean Bible Society in an attempt to create alternative compact bibles. We'll be looking at the Jongbloed printed and bound Half-Volume Bible in a future post as it tried to accomplish something similar to the Handy Bible, but in a very different way.

In 2017 Word of Life Press Ministries released an update to the New Japanese Bible translation; as of yet, nor have they ever released anything to compete with the Handy Bible or anything like a thinline bible. Word of Life has formatted the 2017 translation into western-oriented paragraph format for both their bilingual Japanese-English bible and for the BibleNavi, their study bible. In order to create a true thinline, all they would need to do is release a double column paragraph format bible with the work they've already done, which in my mind is simply a missed business opportunity.

In 2018 the Japanese Bible Society updated the New Interconfessional translation with the new Japanese Bible Society Interconfessional version. As of 2024, they have yet to release a Handy Bible version of this new translation in either the B6 size nor the A5 size.

Jesus wept.

 

I have wondered whether or not CVD-19 might have had something to do with the lack of new releases from them. A lot of things have changed in Japanese bible publishing as a result of the pandemic. 

The company that both the Japanese Bible Society and Word of Life Press used for their leather bibles and edge gilting closed after over seventy years of operation, possibly in part because of the virus. Aside from a small blurb in the Japan Bible Society's annual report, I haven't found much more information about it, but I can imagine that this is likely why neither company has released any new leather bound bibles since their initial print runs of the new translations.

Hopefully we'll get to see both the Japanese Bible Society and Word of Life Press release their translations in a thinline version some day. If no one else is going to do anything, I might have to take matters into my own hands at some point.

Learning the ropes in Word.

On Japanese Bibles (in English) Part 2

Current selection of Japanese Bible Society bibles.

In my previous post on this topic I shared some general information about the current dynamics of the modern Japanese bible publishing scene, and gave a hint as to where I am headed with this series of posts.

My last post was a bit long on the introduction, and rather than sermonizing this time, I'll get right into the pertinent information.

More than ninety percent of Japanese bibles are published by two groups: The Japanese Bible Society, and the Word of Life Press Ministries. 

The two most widely used Bible families, each one belonging to one of the above groups, are the New Japanese Interconfessional Bible (and its 2018 update, the Bible Society Interconfessional Translation), and the New Japanese Bible (recently updated in 2017). There are hand full of less common translations like the Japanese Living Bible, the Modern Japanese Bible, and a hand full of Roman Catholic translations--but none of these are currently widely used.

In effect, there is a duopoly between the NRSV-like Interconfessional Bible used largely by Mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics, and the Evangelical Protestant ESV-like New Japanese Bible.

The New Japanese Bible 2017 in three standard sizes: A5, B6, and A6.

Both the Japanese Bible Society and Word of Life Press release their bibles in three standard sizes, based on Japanese paper sizes.

Japanese Paper

Japan is among the most literate countries in the world--the Japanese people love reading. There are book stores and libraries all over Japan. Another thing that the Japanese love is consistency. Despite having a population of over a hundred million people, most of the books published in Japan fall into only a handful of sizes and dimensions.

It is not uncommon when going down an aisle of a library or bookstore to see entire shelves of books with the exact same dimensions. 

A diagram showing the common paper sizes available in Japan.

One of the reasons for this has to do with the standardization of paper sizes. Most Japanese books are either published using A-side (international standard) paper sizes or B-side (Japanese standard) paper sizes. If you have ever gone into a stationary shop that sells Japanese notebooks you will likely have encountered these before. In Japan, A4 is the standard size for printer paper,  and if you fold A4 in half, you will get a booklet that is A5 sized. Fold it again and you will get something A6 sized. 

The most common Japanese book sizes.

Many magazines are published in A4 size and B5 is a common notebook size. Both the Interconfessional Bible and the New Japanese Bible come in three standard sizes: Small (A6), Medium (B6 or 4-6) and Large (A5).

In the previous post I described the shape of the average Japanese bible as a brick. That is because of a few different factors. The standard versions of the New Japanese Bible and the Interconfessional Bible are both over 2,000 pages. Within the standard range, of each of these bible translations, all of the bibles share the same text-layout and pagination--the main difference between them being their footprint and the font size.

Pagination 

Some of the reasons why the Cambridge Pitt Minion is one of the most beloved Bibles formats of the past century is its combination of readability and a diminutive compact size. In addition to this, it has developed a loyal following among pastors because an enlarged version of it is sold as the Cambridge Aquila Wide-Margin Bible. Recently, a third bible version, the Cambridge Diadem, the Wide-Margin sans (without) the margins, was added to the family. Three different bibles with the same pagination in different form factors has its pros and cons.

Cambridge promotional image: Pitt, Diadem, Wide-Margin

For people who swear by the Pitt Minion, they can have a compact one that fits in their back pocket, a journaling one for study and devotion, and a full sized version to preach out of at church. Within a specific translation, the pagination is going to be the same, which should contribute to scripture memorization and familiarity.

You can think of the three standard Japanese bible sizes in a similar way. Each one of them is more or less a facsimile of each other, just in different sizes. At face value this would seem to be a good thing. If you are in a church, and everyone is using the same translation, rather than calling out the reference verse, one could simply say the page number.

The problem becomes, when this self-imposed limit keeps one from being able to innovate. The only exceptions to the self-imposed slavish devotion to keeping the same pagination comes with each Japanese publishing house's bilingual bibles and study bibles. 

On at least two occasions the Japan Bible Society has attempted to create more compact bibles while keeping the pagination; the result was a bible that depended on extremely thin European bible paper (the aptly named JBS Half-Volume Bible), and the other went with a dainty font and jammed two pages worth of pagination into one page (the JBS Handy Bible).

Psalm 23 starts on OT p.854 in both the JBS Handy & Half-Volume.

We'll take an in-depth look at both of these bibles in a future post--to see what they got right, and what they got wrong, but one thing that they more or less prove conclusively is that one of the main issues holding back innovation in Japanese Bible Publishing is a self-imposed desire to keep the pagination the same between as many different versions of the bible as possible.

In the case of the Japanese Bible Society, they put the page number in the top corner of each page rather than the book name and chapter; the Diglot Bible being a notable exception because of its need to accommodate the ESV text. 

Text Orientation 

Another feature that all of the standard Japanese Bibles share in common is the traditional Japanese top-to-bottom right-to-left text orientation (tategaki). 

Psalm 23 written tategaki in the JBSIV & NJB2017 medium editions.

While the study bibles and bilingual English-Japanese bibles are exempt from being written tategaki, only a hand full of full-text Japanese bibles have ever been released written in yokogaki (Western style, left-to-right orientation). The very popular JBS Handy Bible is a major outlier in this sense. 

One of the reasons for the bloated page count of many Japanese bibles is the use of the tategaki writing orientation. Accommodation for yokogaki means a lot of extra dead space on each page--similar to that of an English single column addition in the poetic sections. Many older Japanese will be more comfortable with the traditional text orientation, but yokogaki (Western style) is considered the standard in many parts of academia and business. 

Because it is a more efficient use of space when printing Japanese, yokogaki is used rather than tategaki when creating bilingual bibles, study bibles, and the JBS Handy Bible. The Handy Bible was able to shed nearly a thousand pages over the standard edition in no small part due to their willingness to embrace a two-column Western text orientation. 

Font Size & Readability

Where the Handy Size Bible suffers is in its microscopic six point font. Whereas the much beloved Pitt Minion is still quite readable even with a six and a half point font, not all fonts are created equally. It may be because of a fear of ghosting, but Japanese bible fonts tend to err on the side of being too thin/light rather than bold. That is despite the fact that many Japanese bibles are line-matched, meaning the text on the front and back of pages are matches so that there isn't too much ghosting in between the lines of text.

Readability: Handy Bible side-by-side with the Pitt Minion

Japanese compact bibles, including the small-sized standard bible in both of the publisher's lineups have uncomfortably small fonts. Most modern Japanese bibles (aside from the free ones given by the Gideons) also have ruby text (furigana), which are the phonetic alphabet over the top of the Kanji, Chinese-origin Japanese characters.

Most Japanese bible texts feel cluttered and busy. This may be the reason why they prefer to print them in tategaki as it gives the text a little more breathing room; with the compromise being the extra thousand pages in length.  

I recently went down a deep rabbit hole of Japanese typography--and learned a lot more about traditional Japanese printing and fonts than I ever knew before. If someone were going to want to design a bible from the ground up that addresses some of these issues, they will likely need to engage the services of someone like 2K Denmark to create a more legible, semi-bold Japanese font specific for increased legibility. 

Binding

Most Japanese bibles are made with a very utilitarian aesthetic. While both the Japan Bible Society and Word of Life Press offer pricey leather bound editions (in the aforementioned three sizes and uniform shape), the standard editions tend to be bound in vinyl covers and lack some quality of life features common to bibles in other countries.

Many Japanese Christians will opt to remove the dust covers from their vinyl bound bibles and put them in an after-market bible-cover or zipper pouch. Probably because of the dimensions of Japanese bibles and their predilection for falling apart at the seams (also as a result of their dimensions), many Japanese would prefer to keep their bibles wrapped up instead of loose in a book-bag.

There is also an interesting chicken-and-egg corollary; many Japanese churches have small tables instead of pews, and when Japanese Christians prepare for worship, they will often spread out their bibles, notebooks, hymnals, pens, highlighters on the table in front of them in the church. Did the bibles become more text-book shaped as a result of the tables, or did the tables become favored as a result of the reference-book nature of the bibles?

A note on how to take care of a leather bible in a pocket NT.

One of the things that got me started down this rabbit hole was seeing my wife's bible starting to fall apart at the seams. Two thousand pages sewn and glued into a vinyl cover of a Japanese bible, being used every day, doesn't stand much of a chance against Japan's notoriously hot and humid summers.

I have wondered whether one of the reasons that Japanese people don't have nicer bibles is because they expect them to be low quality and to fall apart quickly. 

Summing this post up. There seem to be a lot of factors conspiring against the creation of something like a thinline bible for the Japanese church. A confluence of tradition, self-imposed limits, market forces, typographic challenges, climate, and culture, many Japanese bibles continue to be inconveniently sized, heavy to carry around, difficult to read, and of a low production quality. 

As I said last time, "a bible that is easy and enjoyable to read actually makes it easier to spend more time in God's Word." My hope is that with a little push, we can see an explosion of innovation and creativity in Japanese bible publishing that leads to more people encountering Jesus through His Word.

In Part 3, I hope to explore how with a few tweaks, either the Japan Bible Society or Word of Life Press could put out a thinline bible using work they have already done.

On Japanese Bibles (in English) Part 1

Prior to moving to Japan in 2014, I used to have an extensive Christian library. Built over many years, and filled with tomes gathered second hand from Wheaton Illinois' many thrift shops; it overflowed many bookshelves. 

However, when I began preparations to move to Japan, I realized I needed to downsize. What I couldn't sell, I gave away, and what I couldn't give away, may still be somewhere in boxes in my parent's garage. Many books that I felt I couldn't live without, I repurchased on Kindle instead of keeping a physical copy.

Having been an early reader of J Mark Bertrand's Bible Design Blog (now Lectio), I had even picked up some enviable copies of the scriptures when one could still find amazing deals on eBay and Bookfinder. Prior to moving to Japan I sold a few dozen Bibles on eBay, including a couple of rare vintage Cambridge and RL Allans for a tidy profit--which helped subsidize my living expenses while raising support.

When I moved to Japan in 2014, I only brought with one English bible, a second hand Cambridge ESV Pitt Minion in Brown Split-Calf Leather that I got on eBay for $25. Ten years ago my eye-sight was a bit better than it is now, because the 6.5 point font isn't as easy on my eyes as it used to be.

Bilingual Bible with NT & Pitt Minion

Like many missionaries moving to Japan for the first time, I picked up, and inherited a few different Japanese bibles. My first bible purchase in Japan was a Word of Life Bilingual New Japanese Bible/New International Bible 1984. The dimensions of an actual brick, and weighing almost as much, this bible was the gold standard for English speaking missionaries to Japan from 2005 until 2017. However, it was not very portable. It was designed more as a reference book, and ended up spending more time on a shelf than being used. 

From my arrival in Japan until 2017, if I was on my way to church, I usually tucked a paperback copy of the New Japanese Bible New Testament into my bag with my ESV Pitt Minion and hoped that the pastor wasn't going to be preaching from the Old Testament.

This 400 yen paperback New Testament actually got more overall use than my 6,400 yen Bilingual Bible. 

Bad Habits

When I was in graduate school I discovered the Robert Murray M'Cheyne bible reading plan. This corresponded with reading a book about the founding of the Korean Scripture Union titled 'Crisis Unawares,' by Peter Pattisson, and my personal adoption of the English Standard Version for my personal devotions and study.

The book 'Crisis Unawares' is an autobiographical book about a OMF medical missionary in South Korea who realized the greatest need before him was biblical illiteracy and the steps he took to remedy it. Applying the book to my own life, I used the M'Cheyne reading plan to systematically read through the bible several years in a row. 

My previous church in College and afterwards had had an in-house bible reading plan, possibly modeled off of the Korean Scripture Union's one, created in part through the work of Robert Pattison, which likely was inspired in part by M'Cheyne's one. 

All that is to say, in the years leading up to my deployment to Japan with Converge, I was regularly engaging God's Word and had developed both a framework for its importance in my life, and the habits to reap the most blessings from prolonged periods in the Word.

When I arrived in Japan, I felt an immense pressure to learn the language. Corresponding to this pressure, was guilt about using English. I felt that I should be spending time studying the Bible in Japanese, and at the same time, wasn't getting much out of these efforts because of how undeveloped my Japanese was at the time.

Maybe it was the demands of my language school, or the inconvenient size of the bilingual bible, or the 6.5 point font in the the Pitt Minion, but I began spending less and less time in God's Word. 

When I would get out the Japanese New Testament and sit down to read, I would get bogged down with every word that I didn't know, and it would take me an hour just to work through the meaning of one chapter. Studying God's word became more about studying the language than spending time with God.

When I would open up the ESV, I would feel guilty about spending time reading the Word in English when I should be reading it in Japanese.

As a result of these and other factors, my time in the Word atrophied when compared with how much time I was spending reading it in graduate school and when I first arrived in Japan.

I still had to prepare bible studies, and was in the Word with students and in ministry capacities; but I stopped delighting in God's word the way that I had done previously.

For multiple reasons, my first term in Japan was a train-wreck, and in retrospect, it was likely exacerbated by the fact that I wasn't as rooted in the scripture as I had been previously.

First Love

Near the end of my first term in Japan I met the future Mrs. Smith. She was raised in a solid Christian home, and had rededicated her life to the Lord years earlier. Part of her testimony was the role that reading God's Word played in her repentance and return to Jesus.

One of the things that made me fall in love with my wife was her love for God's Word. 

However, I was confronted in the beginning of our marriage with the fact that what I said I valued was out of sync with my own life. For decades I had been studying God's Word, and had deep wells of scriptural knowledge, theological understanding, and ministry experience--but when we got married, it became obvious really quickly that I wasn't in the Word as much as I should be.

My wife would wake up every morning and head down to the dining room table and start the day in God's Word. Instead, I found myself checking e-mail, catching up on the latest news, or thumbing through my smart phone before breakfast. What I said I valued, and even how I perceived myself, didn't line up with reality. Eventually this lead to conflict.

I would be listening to Christian podcasts, have an audio bible on while doing dishes, and even be studying theology books to prepare for work; but my wife didn't see me actively reading God's Word.

One of the formative experiences in her life was waking up every morning and coming downstairs to see her father reading the bible. Marrying a missionary, she expected me to be leading family worship in a way that I wasn't. 

We'd read the book 'The Five Love Languages,' together soon after our marriage, and it had helped me to realize that my wife's primary love language is acts of service, but even more so than that, one of the ways that she most profoundly feels loved is when she sees me reading God's Word.

I however, pridefully rationalized that I was still getting just as much scriptural content, just spread out over several different mediums. But the reality is, that I had stopped delighting in scripture the way that I had done previously. 

I needed to return to my first love.

A year into our marriage, something needed to change, and that something was my attitude towards God's Word. I had to admit that what I said I valued and what I was actually demonstrating in my life, towards the person I most loved, were out of joint. Especially with the increased burdens of growing ministry, a new marriage, and looming fatherhood, I needed to rededicate myself to daily prioritizing time in God's Word.

Practical Matters

Part of repentance is tracing one's steps back to where they departed from the right path. A lot of times people will produce excuses for why bad behavior began as a way to deflect from responsibility. However, real repentance must also grapple with the very real factors that lead to a failure in the first place--otherwise one would likely fail at that same point again.

I thought of myself as someone who delighted in the Word of God, and while that may have been true in a different season of my life, it wasn't what was being actively reflected to my wife.

Was it the busyness of ministry, the difficulty of the Japanese language, spiritual laziness, depression and burnout, or my own pride? Yes. It was some combination of all of the above, and probably even more than that.

Once I had confessed in my heart that I had sinfully neglected God's Word, and that as a missionary, a husband, and a father it was my responsibility to prioritize God's Word in my life, what were the practical steps that I needed to retrace to get back into a healthy pattern of bible reading and study.

After several attempts to start a bible reading plan together with my wife, I realized that for both of our sakes, it was better for me to find a plan that I could follow and be accountable to. So I began to use the Robert Murray Mc'Cheyne plan again.

I also got a few new bibles, including some that were much more suitable to my middle-aged eyes. One of the Christian bookstores in Japan was clearing a bunch of English bibles, and I was able to pick up a couple of paragraph bibles and large print bibles in different translations for very reasonable prices. I also found an English teacher getting ready to retire who was selling his English Christian books on the Japanese version of Facebook Marketplace and grabbed a couple of good study bibles.

I made the decision that it was more important to be in the Bible regularly in English than it was to be painfully struggling through reading it in Japanese without getting much out of it. 

Unsurprisingly I have found that having a bible that is easy and enjoyable to read actually makes it easier to spend more time in God's Word. 

Even reflecting back on high school, college and graduate school, the bibles that I spent the most time reading had a few notable features. Despite my younger eyes, I still gravitated towards a larger font. I preferred bibles in paragraph format rather than verse-by-verse, and the bibles that I spent the most time reading often fit into what might be called the 'thinline,' size. When I had come to Japan I had gotten rid of all of the bibles I had like this. 

As a result of moving to Wakayama and taking over a Bible Reading group at Shirahama Baptist, I have been doing a lot more reading of the Old Testament in Japanese than previously. One of the interesting side-effects of spending more time in the Word in English is that I have actually been increasing the amount of time I am in the Word in Japanese as well.

With the above realization about one of the factors that lead to the decline in my personal bible reading, I began searching for a Japanese bible that would fit those criteria. 

The Missing Japanese Bible

Japanese Bible Publishing is dominated by a duopoly. The vast majority of bibles being used in the Japanese church are published by either the Japanese Bible Society or Word of Life Press. 

The Japanese Bible Society publishes the ecumenical Interconfessional Translation, which is probably most comparable to something like the NRSV in English. JBS also publishes a number of older, less used translations. They recently updated the New Interconfessional Translation (NIT) to the Japanese Bible Society Interconfessional Version (JBSIV) in 2018. The NIT is the most widely read bible in Japan, and even with the release of its successor is still used by something like 60% of the Christians in Japan. As a Japanese as a second language speaker, I find the NIT to be less accessible than its main competitor. 

The explicitly Evangelical Protestant Word of Life Press Ministries has the New Japanese Bible. Originally created in cooperative effort between the Lockman Foundation and the TEAM mission, the New Japanese Bible was translated along the same lines as the New American Standard Bible. Unfortunately this partnership later soured and resulted in lawsuits which cast a negative shadow on the translation for a period of time. The New Japanese Bible has been revised several times, including as recently as 2017. The 2017 New Japanese Bible is, in my opinion, the most readable Japanese Bible yet to be produced. The language of the NJB2017 is very closely aligned with what one might hear on NHK or encounter in a current Japanese language textbook.

A few of our Word of Life Press bibles. Compact to study.

Both of these publishers tend to offer bibles in about six different form factors, namely; compact (brick), small (brick), medium (brick), large (brick), bilingual (brick), and study (brick). 

I have my own theories as to why all of the Japanese bibles are shaped the way that they are, which is likely some combination of desiring to keep the same pagination, Japanese paper sizes, considerations regarding furigana/ruby text,  Japanese text orientation, cost savings, a lack of competition, environmental factors, and a loyalty to tradition. 

JBS has a little more variety in their current offerings--if you like zippers.

There are a few outliers that have been released over the years that attempt to address one or two of the above issues, but there has yet to be a bible released by either publishing company that could be considered a true 'thinline,' bible, and I am hoping that this is going to change.

I wrote this very long introduction because I believe that if I had access to a Japanese bible that was comfortable to hold, had clear legible writing, in a format that could be accommodated in a small form factor, it is likely that rather than a paperback new testament, I would have been carrying a full copy of God's Word with me for the past ten years. 

That is no guarantee that I would have been reading it more--but as I said above, a bible that is more easy and enjoyable to read will likely lead to it being read more. I would love to see more bible format options available to the Japanese church, and so in the spirit of J Mark Bertrand's Bible Design Blog which has helped to catalyze some very exciting changes in English bible publishing, I am writing this (and will hopefully eventually re-write this in Japanese) with the hopes of spurring on positive changes in Japanese bible publishing.

In the next post in this series, I will discuss the above features of Japanese bibles in more details, and some of the exceptions that I have come across, and the right combination of those exceptions that would result in a true 'thinline' Japanese Bible.

A Suitable Field Vehicle

So recently I discovered that it was standard operating policy for a career missionary with my agency to have a field vehicle. Prior to this I had just assumed that I would buy a 100$ bicycle and do most of my commuting by mass transportation, by bicycle or by walking--just think of the health benefits! That is probably what I will still do, but having a vehicle will help me to travel more freely, give rides to others when I need to, and in case of emergency be able to help others without access to a vehicle.

In setting up a starting budget, we asked around to find out what I could get a quality used car for in Japan--and it wasn't all that more expensive than in the USA. However, there are additional costs. Gasoline is much more expensive in Japan, there's insurance and keeping the car licensed which is significantly more complex (and expensive) than in the USA.

However, as I thought about what kind of car I would like to get, a few things popped into my mind... thus this blog post, what would be a 'suitable field vehicle,' for a missionary in Japan.

Kei Cars

Vanilla flavored car.

These super-compact cars are the entry model for many Japanese drivers. They are economical, efficient and environmentally friendly. Considering how much narrower many streets are in Japan compared with the USA, they might actually be a good choice for me. However, if you recall how funny the 'Big Man in a Little Coat' scene was in Chris Farley's movie 'Tommy Boy?' Well that could be me in one of these tiny tiny cars. Which reminds me...

Bosozoku

Dragon Ball graphics add to its appeal.

Bosozoku literally translated to 'reckless tribe.' It describes a distinctively Japanese youth culture that revolves around motorcycle gangs. Part of this culture is about making outrageous modifications to motorcycles--which was relatively inexpensive for young people back in the '70's and '80's. However, as these young people grew up, they began to modify cars also. Some of these cars can be quite gaudy by Western standards, but that is part of their appeal.

Recently I attended the Reaching Japanese for Christ Network Annual Conference in Kirkland WA. The main topic of this year's conference was contextualization of the Gospel for Japanese. I have been thinking a lot about contextualization for the Japanese and in thinking about a suitable field vehicle I couldn't help but wonder if in order to reach Bosozoku with the Gospel, one must become Bosozoku.

Drifting

The decals add to the mystique.

The drifting subculture really began to take off in the 1990's and has become something of a worldwide phenomenon. One of the most significant ambassadors for drifting was the Japanese manga and anime 'Initial D.' The story, which started as a bit of a parody of itself is about a young man who drives a Toyota AE86 into the mountains every night to delivery Tofu for his father's business--as a result he becomes an expert at drifting, and ends up racing his stock road car against much more iconic Japanese sports cars. Because drifting is more about technique than speed, he overcomes great obstacles to beat much better cars with his humble Tofu delivery vehicle. There is only one car worth considering if one is going to embrace the drifting culture in Japan.

'Murica!

Don't mess with Texas!... in Tokyo.

Not all Western missionaries are known for their sensitivity to local cultures. In fact, more often than not the Western missionary is caricatured as someone out of touch with the locals (this unfortunate stereotype has its basis in reality) and lives lavishly compared with those around them.

If you can't beat them, then why not join them. Believe it or not, you can buy an H2 Hummer in Japan--this would be absolutely one of the worst vehicles to drive in Japan because of the narrow roads. But just imagine all of the Japanese that would look on with envy at the totally awesome display of American superiority
(oh wait, did the Chinese try to buy the Hummer brand?).

Honorable Mention

At the beginning of this post, I said this would be an article about cars--but many Japanese in cities get around by bicycle.

There is a style of bicycle with is ubiquitous in Japan, and that is the humble Mamachari, or Mother's Chariot. Don't let the name fool you, these are unisex utility bicycles. You'll see everyone riding Mamacharis: college students, office workers, and even mothers. Newer models can even come with electric assist built in (these can cost as much as a moped/motorcycle).

I said that they were unisex, but some of them don't give that impression--especially if they are covered with child's seats. However, that only means one has to be that much more assured of their masculinity to ride one of these bad boys (girls?).

Missions と Japanese; Why Not Focus on the Negative?

A few months ago now, a blog post by Dr. Joseph Kim entitled, 'Why Japan?' made the rounds among those interested in missions among the Japanese. In it, Kim argues that there are many negative issues in Japan that make it a prime mission field. As a response, another missionary to Japan Simon Cozens wrote a thoughtful critique in which he claimed that such emphasis pointed to a colonial 'white-man's-burden' view of missions and was unhelpful in thinking about missions generally, but specifically to the Japanese.

Sazae-san, Japanese and as wholesome as the Amish.

Of course, there is probably a place in the middle--in the past, I would have agreed wholeheartedly with Dr. Kim's blog-post, but after years of serving in missions among both affluent and those in abject poverty my views have changed quite a bit, and I find myself heartily agreeing with Simon's assessment--to a point. Frankly, I feel that Dr. Kim's list is inverted, he begins with the symptoms but not with the disease. However, late in the post he deals with the fact that many Japanese have never heard the Gospel. 

The primary reason that Japan is still a mission field is not because of rates of suicide, sex trafficking, declining birthrates or workaholism--the primary reason Japan is a mission field is because tens of millions of Japanese, in fact the vast majority of Japanese, do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. This alone should break the heart of any sincere Christian, and any other social ills are simply a manifestation of this reality.

However, saying this is not enough. I have heard dozens of missionary appeals by men and women headed to Japan in which they emphasize Japan's social ills as a way in which to prompt other Christians to give and pray. I think this is wrong. In fact, in all of the time that I have been serving in missions, I have never met a Japanese young person who was suicidal, nor is it the case that all Japanese are involved in prostitution or are they all hikikomori. 

Doubtless, in a population of 128 million people, there are those that struggle with depression, or sell their bodies, or shun society; but the majority of people that a missionary to Japan will encounter on a daily basis are far less shocking--in fact, they might seem down-right mundane or boring. The fact is, that many Japanese are polite, well-rounded, hard-working, thoughtful and honest. By the world's standard, they are a model people; though still fallen and in need a savior.

The vast majority of Japanese young people are just like the vast majority of young people anywhere in the world--they have dreams, goals, they fall in love, they make mistakes, some of them are even seeking after truth. The Japanese people are a winsome people, with a culture capable of incredible creativity and beauty. Of course their history and culture are also pock-marked with incredible depravity; but so is ours--just ask any Native American or descendent of an African slave.

We should not define any people based on the aberrant actions of a minority of their members--this in some cases is ignorance, but can easily become racism. Especially now that we are living in a quickly globalizing world--where more and more people are able to communicate freely, we should be concerned about how we speak about those that we desire to minister to! I have non-believing Japanese friends that use Facebook and speak and read English at a high level. Have you considered how they would feel if they were to read something I have written to a Christian audience that focused unduly on the negative aspects of Japanese culture? I'll tell you how they would respond--we already have a precedent.

There is a great case study for those who want to see how Japanese young people respond to negative perceptions of Japanese on the internet. For nearly a decade the English Online Edition of the Mainichi Shinbun had a section entitled WaiWai--which translated scandalous articles from Japanese tabloids into English. Mainichi Shinbun is one of the oldest and most respected newspapers in Japan--yet despite this, little oversight was given to what was being posted under the Mainichi name on the English language website. The result was that many of these tabloid articles negatively influenced perceptions of Japanese by English speaking people around the world.

In the summer of 2008, bloggers on the largest Japanese language forum on the internet, 2chan, began translating these articles back into Japanese--to the outrage of those that did not understand English. There were articles about incest, rape, homosexuality, prostitution etc. These articles were written (or translated) for non-Japanese consumption, and in the views of those Japanese on 2chan, did immense damage to Japan's image abroad. I believe their reaction was understandable and justified--especially for those coming from an honor/shame culture who's highest value is harmony.

The outrage over WaiWai (see wikipedia) resulted in suspension and punitive actions against numerous staff members at Mainichi for failing to properly oversee the English language website. 

Recently, Peter B, a long-time friend posted an article on my Facebook newsfeed about the declining birthrates among Japanese, and asked for my thoughts. I took the opportunity to use personification to explain my why I believe focusing on the negative aspects of a culture can significantly damage our witness to people from that culture, as the following excerpt will show:

Peter: "Wanna add anything to this commentary on Japan's social bankruptcy?" 

Ian: "While I have been tempted several times to write on the social ills of the Japanese I have always been restrained. I love the Japanese; as does the Lord. It has never been my experience that fixating on someone's failures and weaknesses is helpful in introducing them to Jesus. I world rather motivate people to prayer for the Japanese by sharing how much God loves them and how beautiful their culture is than by putting they dirty laundry on display. When I meet a new person I would rather hear about the things they are proud of--looking at the family photo albums than going through their medicine cabinet. Plus, if we were to honestly compare our country with Japan, the social ills of the USA are much darker than in Japan--whether it is suicide, pornography, broken marriages and families, psychological problems etc. the USA makes Japan look like a Disney movie... namely with the complete absence of gun violence."

Peter: "So it sounds like there's a LOT you'd like to add to this commentary on Japan's social bankruptcy, all of it positive. What, for instance?"

Ian: "Well, America is far from a Christian nation, but lets use a bit of personification. Imagine that 'Christian' USA were to desire to lead 'heathen' Japan to faith in Jesus. If 'Christian USA' were to lead with judgementalism by pointing out all of the shortcomings in Japan's social fabric, it would be quite hypocritical, especially considering the many shortcomings of modern American life. Sure Japan has a huge pornography industry, but do you know who has the biggest? Sure Japan has problems with broken families and rising levels of divorce--but who is leading the charge in the field? Sure Japan has sexual deviancy; but so does the good old USA. How about declining population? If we didn't have porous borders and steady immigration, population would be stagnant in America as well. Here's the rub, we're measuring the problems in Japan against a perfection that even our own country falls short of. We believe that all Japanese women should enter the workplace, because we have an idol of materialism and constantly growing GDP, we believe that population growth is good because it feeds economic growth, we believe that blurring gender roles is good because it means equality. We think Japan is backwards because it has chosen not to embrace economic growth at any cost. What does that say about our values? Maybe Japan's immigration policies are archaic--or maybe they value their culture and don't feel the need to globalize for globalization's sake. Back to the 'Christian' USA thing--just as if this were a person evangelism encounter, it would be blatantly hypocritical to focus on the negative aspects of Japanese culture without first being humble and honest about the failures of the American Church and the decline of American culture--that is why I don't focus on the negative. The truth is, all of the problems in both America and Japan have the same source, and the same solution. They are all born out of the fallen nature of humanity and the only solution is the blood of Jesus Christ that washes over all sin."

A few closing thoughts. The first is, Japan needs missionaries because it needs Jesus, not because of its social ills. Secondly, assume that whatever you write or say about the Japanese in the context of Christians, especially on the internet, can be heard and misunderstood by those that we are trying to share our faith with. Thirdly, we should not measure Japan's society by measurements we would be uncomfortable admitting our own has significant shortcomings with. Finally, the Gospel is primarily a positive message rather than a negative one; by focusing on the negative, we can be trapped into seeing the Japanese people through uncharitable worldly lenses rather than Gospel lenses--these are people that are created in the image of God and beloved by the Father, let us show them the same level of grace, mercy and unearned generosity which the Lord has shown to us!

Let us take one step past just 'not being negative,' let us aspire for something greater. I hope that if a non-Christian Japanese person were to read my blog posts or hear me speaking about their nation and people, they would hear love, not judgement. I hope that if someone who doesn't know Jesus reads what I write or listens to what I say on the topic of missions, they will not be offended, but instead intrigued. I would hope that when they hear what I have been thinking and praying about, they would want to know the God who has inspired my heart.

Studying Japanese

I wanted to study Japanese in college--but never got around to it. It was probably one of my biggest mistakes from those four short years (of which there was no shortage). I enjoyed studying Korean, I occasionally still have nightmares about Mandarin Chinese, but I feel a distinct tinge of regret whenever I think about the opportunity I missed to get a good foundation in the Japanese language at the University of Washington.

A I U E O

In preparation to return to Japan next year, I recently made a commitment to myself to spend at least an hour each day studying Japanese. I own a copy of Rosetta Stone Japanese, and am hoping to finish at least one or two units a week.

There are several other great online resources for beginners studying Japanese, including the NHK's Japanese Lessons, the Japan Foundation's Erin's Challenge, and for the nostalgic Let's Learn Japanese starring Yan-San as he explores Japan in the early 1980's! Nihongo Master is a great way to learn and practice Hiragana and Katakana, they currently introduced a pay-wall for the majority of their content beyond learning basic reading, but they are still a good resource.

I also recommend the online dictionary Denshi Jisho, however, I often end up using the free dictionary program Tagaini Jisho instead since it doesn't require an internet connection. I hope that you will pray for me and encourage me to take time each day to study Japanese! If you know of any other good Japanese resources online or worth purchasing, let me know--I am potentially interested in picking up a copy of the Genki Japanese language learning books, which are a little more formal that what I have been using so far.

There is a lot to be said for old fashioned flash cards, reading children's books and watching Japanese YouTube videos. I hope to be at a level soon where I can start to appreciate some of the vast amount of resources available in Japanese online.

What resources have you found to be helpful?

The Economics of Human Trafficking and its Implications for Missions in East Asia

The battle against modern day slavery is being waged around the world--many of those engaged in this struggle are motivated by their faith in Jesus and desire for justice. The fight against human trafficking is one of the most significant social causes of our generation, and has been promoted heavily among young evangelical Christians. Organizations like International Justice Mission and the End It Movement are the at the forefront of this trend. The 60,000 young people at this year's Passion Conference raised over three million dollars towards this cause.

flickr, killerturnip

While this is a significant and important movement, I do have some concerns about its future trajectory and its impact on churches and young Christians. My hope in posting this is not to diminish the importance of confronting injustice, but to offer a healthy corrective to what I see as potentially dangerous influences that the wholesale unquestioned adoption of this cause could have upon the church.

Last year I had the chance to share about my future ministry in Japan with the missions pastor of a church that I was courting for support. Initially I had e-mailed this pastor about my appointment with Converge Worldwide and received a reply that my future ministry in Japan was not within the missions focus of the church. Therefore I would not be considered for funding. He shared that his church had several strategic focuses and they had a policy as a church of only putting funding towards those focuses. Japan and the Japanese people were not one of these focuses.

I was encouraged to see that the church had adopted an unreached people group in Central Asia and had several other healthy ministry focuses--but one thing stood out to me. One of their major focuses as a church was to combat Sex Trafficking in South East Asia. They had partnered with an organization in order to pursue this goal, and it had a lot of traction with the congregation. This particular organization worked to prosecute criminal gangs responsible for trafficking these young women and men and provided job training and HIV/Aids treatment for those rescued from this industry. I must clarify, I think that this is an excellent ministry, and as the church we need to pursue justice and care for those who have experienced systemic injustice.

But something struck me about this--with this focus, the ministry only addressed the supply side of the economic equation of Human Trafficking, but not the demand side. One of the most basic principles in economics is Supply and Demand. A ministry like the one discussed above is only dealing with symptoms, but doesn't deal with the root causes--mainly human depravity and sin which results in this kind of injustice. As long as there are men and women who desire to exploit others sexually, there will be a need for this kind of ministry. Jesus even spoke about this to His disciples when He said that there would always be a ministry to the poor--poverty, a result of human sin, was going to be an ongoing reality throughout the end times.

In order to deal more effectively and holistically with Human Trafficking we must not only deal with the supply side of the economics but also the demand. It is not enough to minister to those being trafficked and prosecute the criminals responsible for their exploitation, we must also discourage the demand--this is only possible with a focused ministry and outreach to those most likely to spend money on sex.

This is where the rub comes--the Japanese, as one of the wealthiest peoples in East Asia represent one of the most significant markets for trafficked women, both in Japan and throughout South East Asia (Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand etc.). The large supply of trafficked women throughout South East Asia is in part due to the high demand among well-to-do expats, many of which are Japanese and Korean. In fact South Korean men for the first time last year became the greatest users of prostitutes in SE Asia.

About a quarter of South Koreans identify themselves as Christians--but in January the Chosun Ilbo, one of South Korea's largest newspapers ran a story entitled, "Koreans 'Biggest Clients of Prostitutes in Southeast Asia'" Too many people associate Sex Trafficking in Asia with European and American expats, when the most significant customer for trafficked women in Asia are East Asian.  It was my experience in South Korea that the church is mostly silent on this issue. Despite large numbers of Christians in South Korea, there has yet to be the kind of social transformation that would discourage this kind of activity.

A strategy that focuses only on curbing the supply of trafficked peoples cannot be effective in winning this war--that is why it must be paired with comprehensive church planting and evangelistic work done in countries where the greatest demand for trafficked women is. Christian social causes like the one mentioned here cannot be effective without significant and transformative evangelistic missions.

There are several potential dangers I see with the current preoccupation with combating slavery among young Western Christians. The first danger is that they substitute the Great Commission with a social cause. Frankly, many young Christians are ashamed of the Gospel and of the church, and gravitate towards a social mission because it is socially acceptable and comfortable. They neglect the call that God has given to make disciples of all nations. It cannot be overemphasized that the center of our mission needs to be the Gospel and its proclamation. The Gospel, better than any strategy or organization formulated by men has the power to transform individuals and societies.

Missions is primarily about making disciples and planting the church amidst new ethno-linguistic groups and geographic locations. Social causes like human trafficking have a way of sapping the strength of the central mission of the church, when in fact they should be pointed to as an example of why this central mission of the church is so important. If we want to see human trafficking end in South East Asia, a comprehensive strategy which includes a focus on both supply and demand is needed. Western Christians have experienced the failure of Prohibition and other top-down moral agendas, and should understand better that real and substantive change can only occur where the Gospel genuinely takes root and bears fruit in a community.

The second danger is that resources best used for advancing the Kingdom of God would be redirected into building a network of Christian NGOs. One of the greatest tragedies of the parachurch movement is that much of the work of the Gospel has been divorced from the life of the church. Missions needs to be rooted in the church, and ministry to those affected by trafficking (both on the supply and demand) is best done through and by the church. We need a strategy that combats human trafficking that strengthens and multiplies churches--this is true of all of missions.

The Civil Rights movement was by and large a Christian movement--its leaders were pastors and preachers. However, the history of the Civil Rights movement has been revised, and the Christian themes removed or secularized. The same was true of the Abolition movement before that. The culture that we live in has a way of co-opting Christian causes and removing the men and women of faith and their voices from the equation. Currently a significant number of voices within the Anti-Trafficking movement are Christian--but if the movement itself is not thoroughly tied into the church, if it doesn't have the Gospel as its center and motivation, we are just building someone else's monuments. 

Finally, there is no greater injustice than our rebellion against God. All other injustice flows out of this rebellion and is the product of human sin, both individually and corporately. In order to truly confront injustice, we must heed and preach the Gospel. We all have sinned against a perfect and good God, who because of his holiness and justice is bound to punish our sins by permanently removing us from His presence--however because of His love towards us, He sent his own son to take our punishment, the death that we deserve as rebels and the wrath that we deserve against our sins. He poured out this wrath on His own son on the cross. His son Jesus died in our place and rose again, conquering death and purchasing our salvation. We are reconciled to God through Jesus' blood shed on the cross and His righteousness is imputed to us. There can be no greater message of justice than this! He didn't stop there though, He adopts us, who were once His enemies as His sons and daughters--co-heirs with Christ to the riches and glory of heaven. There is no greater way to confront injustice than by proclaiming the Gospel of reconciliation.

If we want to win the war against Human Trafficking in South East Asia, we must win the hearts of the men and women of East Asia to Jesus!