japanese

Japanese, or Nihongo, is language spoken by over 120 million people in Japan, or Nippon, and uses its own writing system unique to that language. Christianity was first brought to Japan in about the seventh century, but returned with the Catholic Portuguese in 1542 and Protestants arrived in the mid-nineteenth century. Today there are similar numbers of Catholic and evangelical Protestant Christians in Japan. The first Gospel was printed in 1872. The Japanese Kogotai (colloquial) Bible was produced in 1955. A new interconfessional Common Language (Japanese Good News) Bible was produced in 1996. Bible work is done by the Japanese Bible Society. About one million Bibles are sold in Japan every year.