p. 8 | The Advent Message in Japan

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 26, 1908

The Advent Message in Japan

JAPAN, the land of the Rising Sun, was first entered by representatives of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination about seven years ago, when a work was begun at Tokyo, the capital of the empire, but progress was quite slow for several years. Later a much larger force of missionaries was sent out, and the work was extended to other places. A sanitarium for the benefit of foreigners was established at Kobe, which has continued in successful operation until the present time.

A COMPANY OF MISSIONARIES AND JAPANESE CHRISTIANS AT THE KOBE CONFERENCE

Somewhat later a sanitarium for the benefit of the Japanese was opened in the same city. The work of this latter institution has been greatly blessed as a means of winning for Christ a goodly number who were formerly in the darkness of heathenism.

Evangelical work has been carried forward in various other places, with a good degree of success, and there are now companies or organized churches of believers in this truth in different parts of the main island, Hondo, and on the island of Kiusiu. A goodly number of native evangelists have united with the foreigners in proclaiming the second advent message in Japan, and their efforts have been blessed with encouraging results.

In connection with the evangelical and educational work at Tokyo, there is a small printing establishment, where a monthly paper and other literature are issued in the Japanese language.

The marked change which has come over this very interesting country during the last few years has attracted the attention of the whole civilized world; and not the least among these changes is the decay of heathenism. Inasmuch, however, as Christianity has not fully taken the place of the old combination of Hinduism, Confucianism, and Shintoism, Japan has been described as a nation without a religion. It is evident to all intelligent observers that this is a most opportune time for presenting the gospel of Christ to those who are just emerging from heathenism. Japan is certainly among the “all nations” to whom the gospel of the kingdom must be preached before the end will come; and the good news that, “The time is fulfilled; the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” must be made known to the forty million dwellers in this island empire.