Japan is home to one of the largest Anglican Churches, the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK), in a country never part of the British Empire

Japan was first evangelized by Anglicans in 1859, when missionaries came from the American Episcopal Church, following the opening up of Japan to the West in 1853. The Americans were followed by Church of England missionaries in 1869 (C.M.S.) and 1873 (S.P.G.). Fortunately, these groups eventually did cooperate and formed the NSKK in 1887, an independent Anglican Church.

The NSKK published its first Book of Common Prayer in 1878, with a major revision in 1895. This book maintained some of the differences of the founding Churches, particularly in the Eucharist, which included both English and American forms as alternatives. There were a number of revisions to this BCP, with the last one before WW II coming in 1938. A number of these are linked to on our Languages page. Following the war, work was started on a major revision published in 1959, portions of which are presented here. It is the first BCP to use post-war Japanese orthography. This 1959 edition had the first Japanese liturgy which was wholly original and not an adaptation / translation of English and American forms. The Eucharistic liturgy was perhaps the first Anglican liturgy to make use (albeit limited) of the liturgical revival of the previous 10-20 years, and so deviated significantly from previous Anglican forms in a number of respects; for this it received a fair amount of criticism at the time. Besides the revised Eucharistic liturgy, local features include prayers for the emperor, and services for harvest thanksgiving, the admission of catechumens, and a commemoration for the establishment of this church. The baptismal services integrate language for adults and children, and make extensive provision for emergency baptism and conditional baptism. Some prayers reflect the strong anti-war stance of this church.

The 1959 BCP was published in a more classical form of Japanese than is used for speech today. It was superseded in 1990 by a new Book of Common Prayer, in contemporary Japanese. The 1959 Book is still used occasionally, however. For more on the 1959 Eucharistic liturgy, see Modern Anglican Liturgies 1958-1968, Colin Buchanan, ed. (OUP, 1968), and also a chapter for The Oxford Guide to the Book of Common Prayer, edited by Charles Hefling and Cynthia Shattuck (Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 393-396. This book is listed with an incorrect title as 67:15 in David Griffiths’s Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer.
 

The 1959 Book of Common Prayer in Rōmaji:
Introduction (in English)
Morning Prayer
Holy Communion
Evening Prayer

The 1959 Book of Common Prayer (English translation)
    Introduction
    Morning Prayer
    Holy Communion
    Evening Prayer

    Holy Communion: another translation