There are two main translations of the Bible into Japanese widely in use today—the Japanese New Interconfessional Translation Bible (新共同訳聖書) and the New Revised Bible (新改訳聖書). The New Japanese Bible, published by the Organization for the New Japanese Bible Translation (新日本聖書刊行会) and distributed by Inochinokotoba-sha (いのちのことば社), aims to be a literal translation using modern Japanese, while the New Interconfessional Version, published by the Japan Bible Society, aims to be ecumenically used by all Christian denominations and must therefore conform to various theologies. Protestant Evangelicals most often use the New Japanese Bible, but the New Interconfessional Version is the most widely distributed and the one used by the Catholic Church, the United Church of Christ, Lutheran Church factions and many Anglicans in Japan.

Jesuit missions

Japanese Bible translation began when Catholic missionaries (Kirishitan) entered Japan in 1549. In 1613, Jesuits published portions of the New Testament in Kyoto, though no copies survive. Gospels for the Sundays of the year and other Bible pericopes were translated, but it is unknown exactly how much else was translated. This translation of the Bible is now lost. Shortly afterwards, Christianity was banned and the missionaries were exiled.

Protestant missionaries

Work on translation started outside Japan in the 19th century by Protestant missionaries interested in Japan. Karl Gutzlaff of the London Missionary Society translated the Gospel of John in Macau in 1837, referring to the Chinese version of Robert Morrison (Chinese Shentian Shengshu 神天聖書). Bernard Jean Bettelheim, who had been a missionary in the Ryūkyū Kingdom (Okinawa) and who had been exiled, translated the Bible to Ryūkyūan and published the Gospel of Luke and John, Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans in Hong Kong in 1855. Japan re-opened in 1858, and many missionaries came into the country. They found that intellectuals could read Chinese texts easily, so they used Chinese Bibles at first. However, the proportion of intellectuals was only about 2%; thus, in order to spread their religion across the country more effectively, a Japanese Bible became necessary. A bilingual version of the Gospel of Luke was published in 1858. Intended for missionary use in Japan, it contained a revision of Bettelheim's Luke next to the Chinese Delegates' Bible version. Because the translation was heavily influenced by Ryukyuan languages, it proved just as unsuitable as Chinese-only Bibles. After immigrating to the United States, Bettelheim continued work on his translations, and newly revised editions of Luke, John, and the Acts now closer to Japanese than Ryūkyūan, were published posthumously in Vienna in 1873–1874 with the assistance of August Pfizmaier.

Meiji Original Version, 1887

A translation was done by James Curtis Hepburn of the Presbyterian Mission and Samuel Robbins Brown of the Reformed Church of America. It is presumed that Japanese intellectual assistants helped translate Bridgman and Culbertson's Chinese Bible (1861) into Japanese, and Hepburn and Brown adjusted the phrases. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew and John were published in 1872. Hepburn's project was taken over by a Missionary Committee, sponsored by the American Bible Society, British and Foreign Bible Society and the Scottish Bible Society in Tokyo. Their New Testament and Old Testament, called the Meiji Original Version (明治元訳聖書 meiji genyaku seisho, "Meiji era Original Translation of Scripture"), was published in 1880 and 1887 respectively. They translated from a Greek text as well as the King James Version.

Taisho Revised Version, 1917

A revision of the New Testament, the Taisho Revised Version (大正改訳聖書), appeared in 1917 during the Taishō period. This version was widely read even outside of Christian society. Its phrases are in pre-modern style, but the translation became popular in Japan nonetheless. It was based on the Nestle-Åland Greek Text and the English Revised Version (RV).

Bible, Japanese Colloquial, 1954, 1955, 1975, 1984, 2002

After World War II, the Japan Bible Society (日本聖書協会) translated the "Bible, Japanese Colloquial (口語訳聖書)". The New Testament was ready in 1954 and the Old Testament in 1955. It was adopted by certain Protestant churches but never became very popular. It was considered to have been written in a poor literary style. This translation was based on the Revised Standard Version (RSV).

Japanese Living Bible, 1977, 1993, 2016

Based on the Living Bible, this translation uses an informal literary style which attempts to capture the meaning of the original texts in modern Japanese. A revised version released in 2016 by Word of Life press.

New Japanese Bible, 1965, 1970, 1978, 2003, 2017

In 1970, the NSK (日本聖書刊行会) – not to be confused with the Japan Bible Society (日本聖書協会) – released the first edition of the New Japanese Bible (新改訳聖書) which was translated from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and Nestle-Åland Novum Testamentum Graece). The aimed to translate theologically difficult passages in a way that was linguistically accurate to the source texts, to strike a balance between word-for-word and thought-for-thought while erring toward a literal translation. The latest edition was released in 2017.

New Interconfessional Translation/Interconfessional Version, 1987, 1988, 2018

The Second Vatican Council decided to promote ecumenism and emphasized respect for the Bible. Consortia between the Catholic and the Protestant churches were organized and translation projects were started in many countries, including Japan. The collaboration committee published the Interconfessional Translation Bible (共同訳聖書) of the New Testament in 1978, but it was not widely supported by both congregations. The committee then published a revised version in 1987, the New Interconfessional Translation Bible (新共同訳聖書), which included the Old Testament. It has been widely distributed by various organisations (such as Gideons International). The next edition was planned to be released in 2016. After the 1987 text was published, inconsistencies were discovered and the public expressed interest in a revision. The board of directors of the Japan Bible Society officially decided in 2009 to undertake the revision of the New Interconfessional Translation Bible, the first revision in 31 years. On 2 March 2010, they held a press conference to announce the start of the translation project. The translation work was completed in 2017, and the result was published in 2018 as the Japan Bible Society Interconfessional Version (聖書協会共同訳聖書). Taking advantage of the Skopos theory of translation, it sought to serve the "next generation" of Christians while presenting the text in a "dignified Japanese suitable for reading in worship."

Other translators

There are many other Japanese translations of the Bible by various organizations and individuals.

Catholic versions

In the Catholic Church, Emile Raguet of the MEP translated the New Testament from the Vulgate Latin version and published it in 1910. It was treated as the standard text by Japanese Catholics. Federico Barbaro created a colloquialized version, which was published in 1957. He went on to translate the Old Testament in 1964. The Franciscans completed a translation of the whole Bible, based on the Greek and Hebrew text, in 1978. This project was inspired by the Jerusalem Bible.

Orthodox versions

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Nicholas and Tsugumaro Nakai translated the New Testament as an official text in 1901. Some have described the Gospels of the Book and John as "much better than any translation currently in existence". Some, such as Protestant Fujihara Fujio, have criticized the style of the 1901 translation. In the 1930s, Orthodox Christians called for the translation to be revised, as they felt that the translation was difficult to understand. However, in an effort to ensure the accuracy of the translation, Nicholas opposed any such changes. In modern times, the 1954 Colloquial Translation is often used instead.

Jehovah's Witnesses, 1973, 1985, 2019

Japanese was among the first eight languages into which the New World Translation was translated. Jehovah's Witnesses first released the Japanese New World Translation as 「クリスチャン･ギリシャ語聖書 新世界訳｣ (New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures) in 1973. This Bible, however, contains Christian Greek Scriptures only. In 1982, a complete Japanese Bible, the 新世界訳聖書 (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures), was released. By the end of the year, tens of thousands of copies had been printed in Japan. Not long after, in 1985, another edition of the Japanese New World translation was released; this release also included the new Reference Bible. Both the Standard and Reference editions were based on the English 1984 edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, which was released in the United States in 1985. In 2019, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, Stephen Lett, released a revised edition of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures with the same name. This translation was based from the English 2013 revision of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. This revised edition in Japanese includes the use of more modern and understandable language, clarified Biblical expression, and appendices, among other changes.

Comparison