Japanese is the principal language spoken in Japan with about 127,000,000 speakers in Japan and over 1,000,000 other speakers scattered around the world. When the missionaries were admitted to Japan in 1859, there were no Japanese Scriptures available so they began by learning the language. Among the early missionaries were the Rev.J.C. Hpburn, Dr Guido F. Verbeck and the rev. S.R. Brown who immediately devoted their energies to language study. The first portion to be completed was the Gospel of Matthew. This edition was printed from hand-carved wooden blocks and was issued in 1871.
In 1872, Mark was printed with funds secured locally. The whole New testament was published in 1880 and the Old Testament in 1887. T New testament was however criticized and a committee was formed to revise it. Work on this began in 1910 began and the Taisho Revised New Testament was completed in 1917. In 1950, The Japan Bible Society established a committee of the Japanese Colloquial Bible believing that the Bible is for all people and should be understandable to them.