Junko Left Japan to Reach Japanese People?

Junko is a missionary who left her home country of Japan…so she could reach Japanese people for Jesus.  

At first, that sounds backwards. Why leave Japan if your heart is for Japanese people? 

But today, Japanese women are walking up to Junko and asking her questions about the gospel—conversations that probably would have never happened in Japan. 

One Japanese lady came up to her and said, “I heard you're a Christian! My kids go to church events with my American friend, and we really enjoy our relationship with them. I tried going to their church but couldn’t understand it because it was all in English. Can you explain it to me?”  

Junko started studying the Bible with this mom, and before long, five other women from her Japanese moms group started joining them! The thing they have in common is that they all have a good American Christian friend and wanted to learn more.  

Junko grew up in a typical Japanese neighborhood with small temples and shrines, but the fact that she became a Christian in Japan is very atypical. After World War II, an American missionary had planted a Christian church in her neighborhood which now had a Japanese pastor. “The church offered a Sunday school for children, and lots of kids in my neighborhood went,” Junko recalls. The parents in the neighborhood didn't really view it as a religious or spiritual activity—to them, it was just a form of free childcare. “I eventually stopped going, but around 14 years old, I started thinking about the meaning of life. My mom had a Bible from that church, so I picked it up and started reading it.”  

Junko’s story is very rare, because Japanese culture values conformity and can be skeptical of outside religions. “But because I’m both a girl and a younger child, it didn’t matter to my parents if I became a believer,” she says. 

After graduating college, Junko wanted to serve God with her life, so she started working at a Christian publishing company and then a Bible school (which she later attended). She told God, “I won’t say ‘No’ to whatever You have for me—if You don’t want me to do something, just close that door.”  

Then God opened the door for her to intern at a small Japanese church in California—an uncommon opportunity considering the traditional gender expectations in Japanese culture. During that internship, God connected her with Encompass worker Cecil. Soon, another door opened, and Junko joined Cecil's team in Long Beach, California, where she spent the next 15 years doing outreach to Japanese students. 

With the Long Beach team consolidating in recent years, Encompass invited Junko to work with a Japanese ministry partner in Atlanta. After relocating to the Bible Belt in 2023, Junko found that churches here are already active in reaching out to Japanese communities. “Because of that, we’re able to take a different approach than we did in Long Beach,” she says. Now she works with local churches to reach Japanese moms who are searching for friendship, community, and hope.  

“Japanese people in the US are more open to Christianity than they are in Japan,” Junko explains. “Young moms move here for their husbands’ jobs, but they aren’t allowed to work here—so they’re excited to become friends with American Christians and learn more about Jesus.” 

Looking back, God has been writing a beautiful story in Junko’s life. It's all been part of His plan, from the moment she picked up that Bible as a teenager, to today as she reaches Japanese moms in America. You can become part of that story by partnering with Junko as she reaches Japanese families with the good news of the gospel.