Portrait of Takahiro Oue. IMB Photo
Takahiro Oue, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Japan, died July 4, 2026, in Newnan, Georgia. He was 82.
Tak was born Aug. 5, 1943, in Kochi, Japan, to the late Fumiko Tauchi Shepard. He graduated from Vine Grove (Kentucky) High School and received the Bachelor of Science from Western Kentucky State College, Bowling Green, and the Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.
Tak emigrated to the U.S. in 1956 after his widowed mother married Earl W. Shepard, a U.S. Army soldier stationed in post-World War II Japan. During college, Tak began to sense God’s leading to preach the gospel. Once he surrendered, God began to open the doors for him to preach at different churches during college. He also took part in jail services and nursing home services. During his first two years of seminary, he served as pastor at Big Spring (Kentucky) Baptist Church, and the last two years he spent as pastor at Gethsemane Baptist Chapel in Louisville.
He married Lana O’Banion on Feb. 11, 1967.
While seeking missionary appointment he wrote, “I did not sense God’s leading into the foreign mission field until I went to seminary. In a way I was afraid that perhaps God might call me back to Japan as a missionary, and I was never willing to face the question honestly. But when I went to seminary, I met Isao Nabekura and Dixon Yagi, both from Japan, who told me about the Christian work in Japan and the need for more workers, and as I listened and thought, I was no longer afraid but became excited at the possibility that one day God would use me in Japan.”
In 1969, the International Mission Board appointed Tak and Lana missionaries to Japan. They served for almost five decades, planting multiple churches across Japan, including in his hometown of Kochi. He later served as a leader of the Japan Baptist Mission and directed the IMB’s disaster relief work following the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.
Tak is survived by his wife of 59 years, Lana; sons Richard Oue (Renae) of Kawasaki, Japan, and Jonathan Oue (Brittany) of Simpsonville, South Carolina; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
A funeral service will be held July 24 at Crossroads Church in Newnan.
Donations in his memory may be made to the Lottie Moon Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at Generosity Resource Center – IMB Generosity.
Read an obituary here.