Sometimes when I tell people that I am going to be a pastor in Japan, they get worried... and to a degree rightfully so. The history of Christian missions is rife with the ministry of foreign missionaries, especially from the West, being patronizing, exploitative, insensitive, abusive and/or simply ineffective. The solution to many, is to do away with the sending of Western missionaries completely and to only facilitate the ministry of native pastors and ministry leaders. Unfortunately it is not that simple. There is both a place for direct ministry and facilitated ministry by foreign missionaries.
Long-time church-planting missionary and now National Director of MTW in Japan, Dan Iverson has a great article titled: Go into all the world and... "facilitate"? addressing the rising thought that foreign missionaries should facilitate ministry primarily and not directly partake in ministry. I highly recommend it if you are interested in this topic.
While it may not be true in all countries, being a foreigner in ministry is beneficial and strategic in Japan. Japanese have certain expectations of Japanese that they don't have of foreigners. There is a freedom that a Japanese person experiences in a friendship with foreigners that they don't experience with other Japanese. The video below highlights the benefit of foreign missionaries working in co-ministry partnership with Japanese pastors for sharing the gospel and establishing communities of faith in Japan.
Roger and Abby Lowther are MTW missionaries in Tokyo and they put together this video about the need for foreign missionaries in Japan.