Bible translations into Japanese

There are two main translations of the Bible into Japanese widely in use today—the New Interconfessional Version () and the New Japanese Bible (). New Interconfessional Translation Version is published by the Japan Bible Society and the New Japanese Bible is published by Inochinokotoba-sha(). There are with different translation goals. The New Japanese Version aims to be used as a literal translation using modern Japanese while the New Interconfessional Version aims to be ecumenically used by all Christian denominations and must therefore conform to various theologies. Protestant Evangelicals most often use the New Japanese Version, 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, and Jesuits published portions of the New Testament in Kyoto, in 1613, though no copy survives. Exactly how much was translated by the Jesuit Mission is not confirmed. It would seem that at least Gospels for the Sundays of the year and other Bible pericopes were translated. Shortly afterwards, however, Christianity was banned and all the missionaries were exiled. That translation of the Bible is now lost.
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 in the region of 2% and in order to spread their religion across the country more effectively, a Japanese Bible became necessary. Incidentally, a second reversion of Bettelheim's Luke was published in 1858, intercolumnated with the Chinese Delegates' version, and designed for missionary use in Japan. This version, with its heavy Ryūkyūan flavor, proved just as unsuitable as Chinese-only Bibles. After leaving Asia and 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 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 Version (明治元訳 "meiji genyaku", "Meiji era Original Translation"), 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 "taisho kaiyaku seisho", "Taisho era Revised Translation of Scripture") appeared in 1917 during the Taishō period. This version was widely read even outside of Christian society. Its phrases are pre-modern style, but became popular in Japan. This was based on the Nestle-Aland Greek Text and the English Revised Version (RV).
Bible, Japanese Colloquial, 1954, 1955, 1975, 1984, 2002.
After World War II, the translated the "". The New Testament being ready in 1954 and the Old Testament in 1955. It was adopted by certain Protestant churches but never became really popular, perhaps because of its 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 has an informal literary style which attempts to capture the meaning of the original texts in modern Japanese. Revised version released in 2016 by Word of Life press.
1977 version available online in PDF form from Biblica and at bible.com
New Japanese Bible, 1965, 1970, 1978, 2003, 2017.
In 1970 the - different from the - released the first edition of the which was translated from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece). The "Shin Kaiyaku" endeavors to translate theologically difficult passages in a way that is linguistically accurate to the source texts, to strike a balance between word-for-word and thought-for-thought but erring toward a literal translation.
The latest edition was released in 2017.
New Interconfessional Translation, 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 started in many countries, including Japan. The collaboration committee published the of the New Testament in 1978, but it was not widely supported by both congregations, Catholic and Protestant. The committee then published a revised version in 1987, the , which included the Old Testament. It has been distributed well by various organisations such as Gideons International, the next edition was planned to be released in 2016.
Translation spent eight years from 2010 to 2017. In terms of translation theory, while the Joint Bible followed Eugene Naida's theory of dynamic correspondence (with formal and dynamic view thorough within bible), and criticism of it, the New Joint Bible changed its direction to " formal correspondence ", The Bible Society's Joint Translation Bible, referring to the Scopos theory proposed by Lawrence de Vries in the Netherlands, adopted the scopos "to aim for a dignified Japanese suitable for reading in worship."
The Bible Society Joint Translation Bible is a Japanese translation of the Bible. This is the Japanese translation of the Bible by the Bible Society of Japan, and has been published as a new translation for the first time in 31 years since the New Joint Translation Bible. The first edition was published on December 3, 2018. The official English name is Japan Bible Society Interconfessional Version.
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 colloquialized it (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 Orthodox Church, Nicholas and Tsugumaro Nakai translated the New Testament as an official text in 1901, but the 1954 Colloquial Translation is often used.
The Japanese Orthodox Bible, of course, describes the Orthodox Yasuyuki Takahashi as "the most credible Bible that can be used regardless of the religion", but even Protestant missionaries in the Meiji era have apostles. Some have described the Gospels of the Book and John as "much better than any translation currently in existence".
Some people don't appreciate the style very much like the Protestant Fujihara Fujio, but in the modern Bible, etc., it is described as an accurate translation. On the other hand, it is true that this translation is difficult, and in the 1930s, orthodox people called for revision. However, Nikolai himself should raise the understanding of the believers toward the translation by having the Orthodox teachings understood correctly, and on the contrary, he was opposed to damaging the accuracy of the translation by asking the public.
There were Even in the 1930s debate, Nakai Kuma Maro was not only able to break down some of Nikolai's elaborate translations, but also had to maintain its magnificent style, so he understood the need for translation. However, expressed opposition to easy translation. As a result, some observers have said that the Japanese Orthodox Church translation has been preserved to date, and that the long-standing inheritance itself can be appreciated.
Jehovah's Witnesses, 1973, 1985, 2019.
Japanese was among the first 8 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. By 1982, the first complete Bible was finally released in Japanese and it is called as "新世界訳聖書" (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures). By the same year, tens of thousands of copies had been printed in Japan printery. Not long after, in 1985, another edition of the Japanese New World translation was released, this release also includes the new Reference Bible. Both the Standard and Reference edition of this Bible is based from the English 1984 edition of the "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures" which was released on 1984 in United States. 
After several years since the released in 1985, on April 13, 2019, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, Stephen Lett, released the revised edition of the "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures" with a same name—"新世界訳聖書" in Japanese. This new Bible is based from the English 2013 revision of the "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures" which was released at the 129th annual meeting of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. This revised edition in Japanese includes the use of more modern and understandable language (look at the chart below), clarified Biblical expression, appendixes, and many more.
External links.
Downloadable
Online