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PEOPLE GROUP PROFILE

The Koreans of Japan

The Koreans of Japan, numbering approximately 795,000 people, are Engaged yet Unreached. They are described as an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula, today forming the dominant populations of South Korea and North Korea, with a large global diaspora They are an Diaspora people, with Korean as their ethnic/kinship group and are in the Korean people cluster of the East Asian Peoples. They mostly adhere to Atheism and Korean is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash: Korean

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: East Asian Peoples
Country: Japan
People Cluster: Korean
Primary Language(s): Korean (kor)
Primary Religion(s): Atheism
Population: 795,000
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Engaged yet Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG007572
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Pray for the Koreans of Japan

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Pray Now!
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Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Atheism
Religious Affiliation: Unaffiliated

54%
%
Atheism Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: Korean
Language Family: Koreanic

100%
%
Korean Speakers

Media Resources in Korean:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film
The SaviorView Film

4 films

Provided by the Jesus Film Project

View all resources

Bible Resources in Korean:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Korean Bible Version✓
Korean Revised✓
New Korean Revised Version✓
Chosun Bible✓✓✓
Sanuri Bible✓

5 entries

Provided by Faith Comes by Hearing

Or check out the Korean bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

View all resources

SPI: Unreached yet Engaged

The Koreans are Engaged yet Unreached, which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations but there are sustained efforts at establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.

Next steps for the Koreans:
Continue prayer and fasting for this group
Continue gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group
Begin training up local leaders to lead and develop strategies to reach their own people

Pray specifically for the Koreans of Japan

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
readJohn 3:19

Pray that God will have mercy on those who love the darkness they are walking in and turn from their sin to faith in Christ.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
readMatthew 24:14

Pray that the gospel of God's kingdom will reach more people and that they will respond in faith, becoming disciples of Jesus Christ.

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
read2 Corinthians 9:6

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will remember the principle of sowing and reaping, and be generous in their giving and serving, knowing that they will reap a generous harvest.

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe."
readJohn 6:35-36

Praise God for the things such as bread that He has provided as natural conversation bridges to the gospel. Pray that believers will use any bridges He provides to share the gospel with those who do not yet know the good news.

Korean Across Countries (ROP3 - 105225) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

35 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
KoreansPG048088KoreansSouth Korea50,280,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG007583KoreansNorth Korea26,110,000Engaged yet UnreachedKoreanAgnosticism
KoreansPG007549KoreansChina2,460,000Engaged yet UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG043310KoreansUnited States1,095,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG007572KoreansJapan795,000Engaged yet UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG024684KoreansUzbekistan257,000No Longer UnreachedRussianAtheism
KoreansPG000920KoreansRussian Federation182,000Engaged yet UnreachedRussianAtheism
KoreansPG021625KoreansAustralia167,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG043424KoreansCanada163,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG024281KoreansKazakhstan133,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG016974KoreansBrazil48,500No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG000249KoreansGermany45,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG000650KoreansUnited Kingdom41,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG047592KoreansNew Zealand38,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG015382KoreansMozambique36,500No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG046918KoreansArgentina35,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanUnaffiliated
KoreansPG000171KoreansFrance29,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG010710KoreansSingapore24,500No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG010874KoreansThailand20,500No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG015310KoreansMadagascar18,500No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG024174KoreansIran17,500No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG024719KoreansGuatemala15,500No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG000420KoreansNetherlands8,800Engaged yet UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG050601KoreansHong Kong8,600No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG017246KoreansParaguay8,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG007526KoreansTaiwan7,000No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG024622KoreansTurkmenistan5,300No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG050301KoreansGuam4,300No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG024358KoreansKyrgyzstan4,100No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG042347KoreansSpain2,900No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG049435KoreansMongolia2,800Engaged yet UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG050228KoreansNorthern Mariana Islands1,600No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG022409KoreansDominican Republic750No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG024842KoreansPanama325No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism
KoreansPG024788KoreansHonduras150No Longer UnreachedKoreanAtheism

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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