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| For Immediate Release | For Further Information Contact: | |
| 11:26 AM (JST) 4/16/98 | David Humble | |
| Tel. 81-55-993-8880 |
| Satellite Broadcast of Christian Television Program First in Japan's History |
| By David Humble |
| SHIZUOKA, JAPAN -- For a
month that has otherwise hosted such disasters as the assassination of President Lincoln,
the sinking of the Titanic, and -- perhaps most dreaded -- the due date for U.S. income
taxes, the 1998 version of the month of April has now seen a history-making event worth
celebrating, especially by those involved in Christian broadcasting. On April 4, digital
satellite transmission made it possible, for the first time ever, for viewers to see a
regularly-aired Christian television program from anywhere in Japan. The program, "Harvest Time," is a 30-minute evangelical magazine-style production of Harvest Time Ministries in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture (about 60 miles southwest of Tokyo). The signal was carried on Japan's newly initiated DirecTV service from one of the "Harvest Time" regular broadcast sources -- TV Kanagawa (JOKM-TV, ch. 42), which covers metropolitan Tokyo and Yokohama as part of its over-the-air broadcast services. Officials at TV Kanagawa created a new entity called "Yokohama Bayside TV" for its DirecTV broadcasts and made some modifications in their regular broadcast schedule. As a result, "Harvest Time" now airs at 2:30 p.m. (JST) Sundays on DirecTV channel 321, and also in its previous slot in TV Kanagawa's regular non-satellite broadcast schedule -- 7:30 a.m. Sundays. Beginning in June, an additional 30 minutes of "Harvest Time" is scheduled to be added weekly. Broadcasts will be at 2:30 p.m. on both Saturdays and Sundays under the new title, "Harvest Masterpiece Collection." "Though only a small beginning, this is a significant milestone in the communication of the Gospel in Japan, I think," said director of Harvest Time Ministries, Rev. Kenichi Nakagawa. "Satellite broadcasting has been the vision the Lord has given us and, though we've been planning and praying toward that goal for several years now, this really took us by surprise. When it was decided to let TV Kanagawa's local broadcast ride on DirecTV's signal, we were automatically taken along. We didn't have to do anything, and it didn't cost us anything either. The Lord often does surprising new things that are far beyond what we might imagine. We're just trying to hang on and see what He has for us next." Japan has traditionally been a hard place for Christian broadcast media work. Current law does not allow a religious entity to own a broadcast facility, so Christian television and radio ministries have had to buy time on local stations like businesses do. Having to pay the high broadcast fees makes national coverage virtually impossible for any one organization. Nakagawa also added that there is still in Japanese society a fuzzy sense that Christianity is a foreign religion and is a philosophy not well-suited to the Japanese mind. "In many ways," he said, "this is a subtle carry-over from the almost 250 years of Japanese history when Christianity was a proscribed religion. Before that, through the efforts of early Christian missionaries, Japan was well on its way to becoming a Christian nation. But, then, as a result of official government edicts, tens of thousands of believers lost their lives in the persecution that followed and Christianity, as an organized religion, virtually disappeared." Since the opening of Japan to the outside world in 1853, Christianity has steadily grown in strength and influence, though it is still a minority religion. Currently there are more than 8,900 churches (one church per 14,000 people), over 2,300 missionaries, a well-established system of mission schools, hospitals and welfare care institutions, and over one million believers of all denominational affiliations out of a total population of 126 million (approximately 1%). In addition to Harvest Time Ministries, Pacific Broadcasting Association, and the Far East Broadcasting Company are the major Christian radio and television producers in the country. "Technology is developing much faster than government structures can keep up," Nakagawa said. "The whole idea of who controls -- or if anyone should control -- digital satellite communications and the Internet is a raging controversy right now. However, if Christian ministries like 'Harvest Time' are ready to move into this window of opportunity and boldly proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then a clear Gospel voice can be established for the Japanese people before unsympathetic or anti-Christian forces can restrict it. The time for this is now." Nakagawa added that through this new relationship with DirecTV, there have already been discussions about having Harvest Time Ministries provide one hour per day of Christian programming beginning in January of 1999. Tentatively, broadcast times would be from 5-6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 2-3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays (JST). Planning and further discussions are currently in progress. Harvest Time Ministries was founded in Tokyo in January of 1986 by Rev. Nakagawa as a non-denominational evangelical Christian media missions organization. Its purpose is to present of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Japanese people through publication and television media. Two monthly Japanese-language newsletters and a weekly Internet e-mail magazine are being published and an Internet website is located at < http://www.harvesttime.tv >. The 30-minute weekly broadcast of "Harvest Time" is currently seen on 13 regional stations in Japan. Overseas broadcasts are seen on stations in Hawaii (ch. 20), Los Angeles (ch. 18), and New York/New Jersey (ch. 63). The Harvest Time Ministries U.S. office is located in Torrance, California. The television program features guest interviews and testimonies, music presentations, location reports from Israel and the United States, and short evangelistic messages from the Bible geared to address timely topics. With a weekly viewing audience of over one million, the program has grown to become the most-watched Japanese-language Christian television broadcast in the world. Harvest Time Ministries works directly with over 900 supporting churches and 6,000 individual supporters. In addition to television broadcasts, Harvest Time Ministries is involved in crusade evangelism, discipleship seminars, book and tape distribution, and world missions projects. Within the latter is a special emphasis on Jewish evangelism and the world-wide Messianic Jewish movement. Rev. Nakagawa has served as past Japan area coordinator for the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism. Rev. Nakagawa is a former Baptist General Conference pastor and a graduate of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Before beginning Harvest Time Ministries, he and his wife, Fumie, pioneered a church in the Tokyo area. He has been involved in Christian television broadcasting since 1979. --For more information, contact Harvest Time Ministries at: Japan Office: 1-21-85 Senpukugaoka, Susono-shi, Shizuoka 410-1115 Telephone: 81-55-993-8880 / Fax: 81-55-993-8883 E-mail: webmaster@harvesttime.tv World-Wide Website: http://www.harvesttime.tv U.S. Office: P.O. Box 4263 Torrance, CA 90510 Telephone: (310)533-0808 / Fax: (310)533-6848 E-mail: harvesttimetv@mindspring.com |
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