JBS NEWS INTERNATIONALJBS NEWS INTERNATIONAL
Rise for the Great Commission

April 2016 Vol.13

God's Word - Life for the World
Greetings from Japan Bible Society

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
(John 13:34)

I

am pleased to send you JBS’s
Newsletter at the season ofcherry blossoms.
The Japanese language has
different ways of reading from
Chinese language and different
characters and readings from theKorean language. The Japanese
sentence mixes freely three typesof characters: Chinese characters(Kanji), traditional Japanesephonetic letters (Hiragana), lettersto write words adopted fromforeign languages (Katakana).
日 本 (written in Kanji, Chinese

Rev. Makoto Watabe

JBS General Secretarycharacter), に ほ ん (in Hiragana,Japanese traditional letter derived
from Chinese character), ニ ホ ン(in Katakana). These three words
are pronounced in the same way,
Nihon, meaning JAPAN. Japanese
language has a history that can betraced back to 1,500 years ago, andonly the people who live in Japanuse it. The characteristic of thepronunciation is that the consonants
always accompany vowels.
If you write words in Romaji
like TO-YO-TA, SU-ZU-KI, or TOKYO, non-Japanese people canElements of the Japanese language: a verse from John 21:1

easily read them. But the grammar
is so difficult that you can hardly
master it unless you are young.
The population of those who speak
Japanese is about 130 million inJapan.
It is our mission to let thepeople throughout the world know
JBS’s activities by publishing thenewsletter in English once a year.
I hope it will be a joy to know
through these articles and photos
how God is working in our midst.
Lastly, please come to Japanfor the Olympic Games 2020.

UBS Publishers Convention: Creating Content
for Changing Cultures

Rev. Watabe and five JBS staff members
attended UBS Publishers Convention heldin Seoul, South Korea, from May 3rd to 7th,
2015. To carry out Bible Work in the face of the declineof churches and Christian schools, delivering God’sword to younger generations is a crucial issue. For that
purpose, JBS hopes to further expand the IT digitalfield.
At the convention, we found that there are still
undeveloped areas such as Study Bible, the Bibles
for women or younger generations. We were much
motivated by the meaningful convention.

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Pilgrimage to Germany and Polandrior to the 500th Reformation Anniversary
two years ahead, JBS conducted a tour
“Pilgrimage to Germany and Poland” from
June 22nd to July 1st with Rev. Yasuhiro Tateno, pastorof Oe-Udo Japan Evangelical Lutheran Church, asleader and lecturer. Sixteen people joined the tour tofollow the trails of Martin Luther and to visit historicalsites associated with theProstestant Reformer. TheyPalso visited Auschwitz Concentration Camp, and theBerlin Wall. They confirmed the importance of putting
their trust in the Bible and to hope for peace througheveryday learning.

Praying together at Auschwitz Concentration CampIn front of the statue of Luther at Lutherstadt Eisleben, Germany

Visit to the Mongolian Union Bible SocietyRe v. Wa t a b e a n d S h o k o Ta k a h a s h i o ffundraising department visited theMongolian Union Bible Society (MUBS) inJune 2015. Joining the United Bible Societies officiallyin May 2016, MUBS will be a member of the Northeast
Asia region which includes Japan.
JBS wants to make our bond stronger as Asianneighbors and will be starting fundraising for the“Mongolian Bible Translation Project Fund” to support
them.
PhD. Garam Bayarjargal came to Japan to givea lecture on the Bible translation into Mongolian
on March 18th. The lecture was a good opportunity
to deepen understanding of the current situation ofChristianity in Mongolia.

PhD. Garam Bayarjargal (center), leader of the translation teamRev. Bayarmagnai Bayardalai (right), General Secretary of MUBS

Gigantic statue of Genghis Khan in Ulaanbaatar

JBS NEWS INTERNATIONALUBS Roundtable Exchange 2015 Held inEthiopia

Re v . Wa t a b e a n d
S h o k o Ta k a h a s h i
attended the UBS
Roundtable Exchange 2015
held in Addis-Ababa in June.
It was reported that over 100
Bible Societies are facing
economic difficulties today.
40 Bible Societies that areeconomically more stable arecommited to supporting themon an annual basis. Despite
the situation, it is exciting toknow that the Word of God
is proclaimed through many
creative and effective projects.

Participating in the International GatheringThe International Gathering was held in Berlin
from June 6th to 12th 2015. Over 200 people
from 60 countries attended. Rev. Watabe wasinvited to the Gathering.
The theme was “Accepting Others, Bridge Over
the Gap.” The goal is overcoming the differences ofpolitics, religion, and culture, and contributing to world
peace. The Parliament that was used as the place of thegathering is located on the former border of East andWest Berlin, which is symbolicand meaningful.

Dr. Lammart,President of Confederation Parliament,
an organizer of the Gathering

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JBS NEWS INTERNATIONAL

JBS Board Visits Korean Bible Society

From September 3rd to 6th, JBS’ssix board members and auditor
led by Rev. Hiroshi Omiya,
JBS Chairperson, paid a courtesy visit
to Korean Bible Society. They visitedthe bookbinding factory with Mr. Kwon,
President & CEO’s guidance and met with
KBS’s 12 board members at the welcome
dinner. Rev. Watabe and four JBS staff
members accompanied the tour.

Rev. Hiroshi Omiya, JBS Chairperson (in white shirt), Rev. Watabe,(right), the board members and the auditors

Seeing the display at KBS

Second Japan-Korea Joint Mission Conference
Held in Seoul

From October 24th to 27th, the Second JapanKorea Joint Mission Conference was heldin Seoul, South Korea. Fifteen pastors fromSouth Korea and twelve pastors from Japan met toshare and discuss missions and visions for Japan andKorea.

Rev. Watabe and two JBS staff members attended
the conference. Rev. Watabe gave a keynote address.

Participants hug after the conferenceJBS NEWS INTERNATIONAL

The 65th National Prayer Breakfast in the USOn February 4th, the 65th National Prayer
Breakfast with President Obama was held
as an annual event in Washington DC. JBSChairperson Rev. Omiya and Rev. Watabe participated.
This being the last Breakfast he attends as thePresident, Obama said that "we all experience fear
… faith is the great cure for fear. Jesus is a good curefor fear." Faith that accepts the differences of otherreligions helps us overcome life’s challenges. He
remarked that we could do that because we are driven
by the common value that many of the faiths teachus: Seeing God in others. He also pointed out that tolove neighbors is to understand one another throughdialogue with others.
More than three thousand from around theworld joined the National Prayer Breakfast, hosted bymembers of the United States Congress, including adozen participants from Japan.

President Obama giving the address(c) www.ibtimes.com

JBS Inks Scholarship With Taylor Universityof USR

ev. Watabe visited Taylor University,
Indianapolis, US on Feb. 8th, and paida courtesy visit to President Dr. Eugene
Habecker, ex-President of American Bible Society.
Both agreed to establish a scholarship and signed thecontract. JBS plans to recruit applicants mainly fromthe area hit by the triple disasters of the East Japan
Great Earthquake, Tsunami, and nuclear power plant
accident in 2011, and send a student every year to studyat Taylor.
The program aims to educate young people byoffering them an opportunity to experience Christianity
in the US. It also aims to support people in the disasterarea in 2016.

Students heading to worship

Scholarship Agreement with Dr. Habecker

Assembly Hour

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JBS NEWS INTERNATIONAL

Current State of the New Translation: Workreached 60%In 2015, the new translation work made a bigprogress. 60% of the draft is completed. 45translation committee’s meetings were heldduring 2015 and the drafts of many scriptures were sentto the editing committee. The main goal of the newtranslation is based on the Skopos theory - to be suitablefor usage in the worship in church.

More than 150 people, including 60 translators
are engaged in the work. Under the cooperation of
the Greek/Hebrew language team and the Japanese
language team, we aim at translating into refined
beautiful Japanese. Since December 2015, books that
we finished translating are published as pilot editions tocall for monitors to give feedbacks.

Translation committee's summer meeting

Translation committee's meeting for Pentateuch and Historical booksThanksgiving Service Commemorating the 120th
Anniversary of the Korean Bible SocietyT

he Thanksgiving Service Commemorating
the 120th Anniversary of the Korean Bible
Society was held at the Chungdong First
Methodist Church in Seoul on November 24th. Fromother Bible Societies, General Secretary Ms. Elaine

Shippoyaki (cloisonné) art was gifted to KBS

Duncan of Scotland, General Secretary Rev. Dr.
Mkunga Mtingele of Tanzania, and General Secretary
Rev. Watabe of Japan were invited and delivered thecongratulatory addresses.
In South Korea, the missionary Rev. John Ross
first translated the Bible. Also Rev. Lee Su Jeon, whowas baptized in Japan, translated the Bible in Hangul.
Those Bibles were used to minister to the generalpublic. Korean Bible Society has been supporting thegrowth (development) of today’s Korean churches.
Moreover, theyare printing
Bibles form o r e t h a n 10 0
Bible Societ ies
throughout
the world asthe production
center of the UBS
fellowship.
Chungdong First Methodist Church

JBS NEWS INTERNATIONAL“Award for Contributor of Bible Promotion
Project” to Royal Jongbloed

JB S aw a r d e d t h e Roy a l Jo n g blo e d , t h eN e t h e r l a n d s’ C h r i s t i a n p r i n t i n g a n dbookbinding company, with “The Awardfor contributor of Bible promotion project” at theChristmas worship on December 8th, 2015. This award
has been given to corporations, organizations, andindividuals who contributed greatly to spreading theBible. Jongbloed is the first winner of the award froman overseas country. InOctober, JBS publishedthe half-volume Bible
i n A 5 si z e t h a t h a s
reduced the weight andthickness by 40%. The
production was done byJongbloed.

Half-volume Bibles

Headquarters located in Heerenveen, Netherlands

Bible Quiz Championship Held in Three Cities

JBS holds the Bible Quiz Championship aiming
to promote the reading of the Bible throughenjoying quiz. We had the games in three cities
in 2015. The games were combined with programs
such as Bible quiz and mini-concert. There were many
voices from the participants that the game made themwant to know more about the Bible.
This year the games will be held in Sendai,Kanazawa, and Kobe. We hope more participants will
join and that this effort will help people engage with theBible.

At Sapporo

At Nagoya

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JBS NEWS INTERNATIONAL

Listening Bible
MP3 player that contains all the 79
volumes of the New Interconfessional
Bible published in October 2015.
You can appreciate the Bible throughlistening with this gadget of easy
operation. Other than listening tothe Bible, it includes other functions
such as recording worship messages,listening to the FM radio, and apedometer for health care. 14,000 yen
only for the first edition (excluding tax)

New Testament with theCover of Chagall's “Songof Solomon”
The New Testament with Psalm ina brilliant red cover was publishedin July. The painting of the cover is“Song of Solomon” by Marc Chagall.
The book wins a favorable reception
for its big size font andsoft casual cover design.
1,300 yen (excluding tax)

Japanese Car Manufacturers Seek
Realization of Automatically Driven Cars

Automatic driving test on the public road, (c) clicccar

Japan Bible Society

Japanese car manufacturers areexperimenting the automatic driving system
on public roads. Toyota performed theexperiment on the Metropolitan highway
on October 6th. The car responds without
touching the wheel to multiple operations
such as curving, joining at the junction, andsurpassing. At the Tokyo Motor Show on
October 28th, Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Presidentof Nissan Motor Corporation, showed apilot model for automatic driving. Honda,Mitsubishi, Fuji Heavy Industries are also
working on the technology. Coming 2017, thesystem will likely to be realized under limited
conditions such as on highways or driving in a
traffic jam.
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1 April 2016e-mail: info@bible.or.jp http://www.bible.or.jp