God Using Halloween in Tokyo: A Bible Verse on a Pumpkin

God works in surprising ways. This week I saw His Word printed on a black pumpkin in a commercial Halloween display near our train station in Tokyo. I'll admit I'm the last person who expected to find God working through a Japanese Halloween display, but He certainly is.

Read on for a short history of Halloween in Japan, how churches here approach October 31st, and why a mass-produced pumpkin has me giving thanks.

How Halloween in Japan Grew Over 50 Years

Halloween is not an indigenous part of Japanese society. It was imported entirely from elsewhere, and its rise has taken about fifty years.

Japanese businesses have been slowly adopting Halloween decorations and customs since the 1970s. What started with novelty sales and small street parades is now a billion-dollar industry. Market research firm Intage estimated Japan's Halloween market at about 167 billion yen in 2025 ↗. Every fall, retailers roll out themed food, candy and convenience-store treats to capitalize on the interest. Today it is almost an entirely commercial event: costumes, candy, food and special events.

Shibuya Halloween: From Street Parties to Drinking Bans

Public celebration of Halloween peaked in the 2010s. Mass gatherings were fueled by social media, phone cameras and street drinking, and they turned into disruptive street parties in districts like Shibuya and Shinjuku. Residents raised serious concerns about public intoxication, overcrowding, trash, property damage and noise.

Over the last few years, the wards that cover Tokyo's biggest Halloween spots have strengthened security and restricted drinking in the street. As a permanent countermeasure, Shibuya now bans street drinking from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. every day of the year ↗, a rule that began in October 2024. The ward counted about 40,000 people in Center Gai at the peak of Halloween night in 2019, and only about 4,200 in 2025. Shinjuku bans drinking in the street in parts of Kabukicho on Halloween night ↗ and asks shops nearby to hold back on alcohol sales. Halloween gatherings in other cities, like Osaka and Nagoya, have been policed as well.

Socially acceptable celebration now happens mostly at select indoor venues and at major amusement parks like Universal Studios Japan and Tokyo Disney Resort. Local shopping areas also host events where children dress up and collect candy from local businesses.

Why There's No Trick-or-Treating in Japan

You won't find trick-or-treating in Japan. Going door to door is considered a real nuisance here. People don't like having someone come up to their house and ring the doorbell unannounced, so the idea never caught on. Children still love dressing up, and parents love taking pictures of them in their costumes.

Reformation Day in Japan

October 31st is also Reformation Day. Reformation Day isn't a popular alternative to Halloween in Tokyo, but October 31st, 1517 is a huge day in both church history and world history. I'm all for remembering those critical reforms, when Christians returned to the truth of Scripture.

How Churches in Japan Approach Halloween

Churches in Japan take different approaches to Halloween. I've seen one church hold a fall-themed small group event for adult members. Another church turned a Sunday service into an outreach with a toy-themed costume party, and members were encouraged to bring their friends.

Our church isn't doing anything for Halloween this year. Instead, we have been planning and working toward a special Sunday outreach in November, closer to Thanksgiving and Japan's Labor Thanksgiving Day, and we're encouraging our members to pray and invite people.

I also know a gentleman who passes out Gospel tracts at a local Halloween event every year. His tracts include a short explanation of the different religious and historical roots of this imported holiday, and he shares the Gospel with the people he meets there.

A Bible Verse in a Halloween Display

God is working. The Holy Spirit is working in Japan right in the middle of the Halloween festivities, and I saw it with my own eyes on the way to my train station.

We moved recently, so I was walking to the station to take pictures and get a sense of what Halloween looks like in our new neighborhood. I had already seen a silver skeleton and some of the usual decorations, along with some cute drawings from a local kindergarten. What I did not expect to find was a Bible verse, reference and all, right in the middle of a Halloween display. Printed on a black pumpkin were the words: "Give thanks to the Lord... 1 Chr 16:8."

It absolutely blew my mind. I wondered if it had anything to do with Reformation Day, or if someone had made a mistake. It turns out these pumpkins are sold as a set. Amazon Japan and the shop supplier Store Express sell a set of three black jack-o'-lanterns with this verse printed on one of them. Other Halloween pumpkins sold in Japan carry Scripture too, including one printed with Galatians 6:9.

In Japan, English on products is considered stylish. Most people can't read English or don't take the time to, so they don't necessarily know what it says. It simply looks like part of a foreign holiday. But because these pumpkins are sold for shop and home displays, Bible verses in English are showing up all over Japan right now. I even found this same pumpkin in an Instagram post from Hamamatsu Flower Park, far from Tokyo. Through complicated global logistics and manufacturing that put plastic pumpkins in Japan, you can find God's Word in Halloween displays across the country.

Give Thanks to the Lord: 1 Chronicles 16:8

The line on the pumpkin comes from King David's song of thanks to God after the ark of the covenant was brought to Jerusalem. Here is the whole verse:

"Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!" (1 Chronicles 16:8, ESV)

Every time someone who reads English stops and thinks about what the pumpkin says, they are invited to give thanks to God. David wrote this in his own context thousands of years ago, and God is still encouraging people to give thanks to Him today, through Scripture, through social media, and even through pumpkins. Though many in Japan can't read an English Bible verse well, God is still making His deeds known among the peoples.

A little bit of God's Word is powerful. God's Word has changed my life, and God's Word is the reason for Reformation Day. God promises that His Word does not come back empty:

"So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:11, ESV)

A Season of Harvest in Japan

I can see God working in Tokyo, and if you can read English, you can see Him working in mysterious ways too. God can use Halloween. God is using Halloween as outreach, and He is using Halloween through pumpkins.

The end of the year is a season of harvest, and people in Japan are ready to hear the Gospel. People are getting saved, and lives are being transformed in local churches. I've met a man who was drawn to a church because he had been reading the Bible on his own. People are hungry for something more, ready for the bedrock of truth that is Scripture. We're praying that more people in Japan grow an interest in the Bible, and whether that comes through a pumpkin, social media, dreams or visions, we'll take it.

That Galatians pumpkin says it well: "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9, ESV)

Have you ever found a Bible verse somewhere you didn't expect it?