Japan

The territory of Japan constitutes the Japan Union Conference, part of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division.

Country Overview

A nation with a democratic form of government, Japan occupies a chain of islands lying of the eastern edge of the continent of Asia and consists of four main islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku, plus the Okinawa islands. On its total land area of about 370,000 square kilometers live about 123 million people (2025).¹ The nation was formerly a kingdom with an emperor, but at the close of World War II, the emperor became largely symbolic, and his position resulted from the agreement of the people who hold the sovereign power. The population is largely homogenous and of a decidedly Mongoloid type though there are indigenous Ainu peoples living on the islands of Hokkaido who have sone Caucasian features. There are also significant immigrant Korean and Chinese communities.

There are myths about the founding of Japan, making it difficult to determine when the country was actually founded. Still, it is probably possible to date it back to around the 6th century A.D., when the Japanese came under the influence of the Chinese civilization and religion. The culture of Japan has been characterized through the centuries by its capacity to assimilate foreign influences. The Chinese provided a foundation for its development, supplying Japan with their literary language and with Buddhism and Confucianism, but the Japanese built upon these contributions their own literary and religious systems. For example, by the end the of the 16th century, a specific brand of Buddhism existed. During the period when the national state was formed, religion was subordinated to the needs of the state and gradually developed into Shintoism, which became the state religion in the latter part of 19th century. After World War II, support of religion by the state was discontinued. Buddhism and Shintoism are still predominant, and the ethics of Confucianism still permeate the social structure, but an interest in Christianity has developed.

The first Christian missionary to enter Japan was the Jesuit Fracis Xavier, who arrived in 1549. His work and that of his successors met with remarkable success.² It is estimated that at the end of 30 years, there were 150,000 converts in 200 churches. However, political unrest and growing mistrust of the real objectives of the missionaries led to the loss of official favor, to opposition, and to persecution, and thousands suffered martyrdom. Finally, all priests were expelled, the Christian faith was banned, and in 1624, Japan virtually closed its doors to the outside world. Jesuit records intimate that before the opposition was aroused, there were a half million converts.³

This isolation lasted for 230 years. The end of the period was marked by the arrival in the Bay of Yedo on July 8, 1853, of four American warships under the command of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry. Perry presented a letter from the president of the United States, and on their second visit, a treaty was signed at Yokohama on March 31, 1854, opening two ports to American ships. This prepared the way for relations with other nations. Before long, the island kingdom was reopened both to foreign trade and to missionary activity.⁴

Government edicts against Christianity were removed from public bulletin boards in 1873, though laws restricting Christianity were not immediately repealed. In 1889, Emperor Meiji granted his people a constitution containing a religious liberty clause. That clause soon became a dead letter because the militarists took control of the government and the persecution of Christians returned.

The new postwar constitution enacted in 1947 guaranteed religion freedom for all and stipulated that state “is to refrain from religion education or any other religious activity.” Japan now enjoys as much religious liberty as almost any other country, and Christianity has taken its place as one of Japan’s religions, with about 2 million members, about 50 percent of them Protestants.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Japan

Territory and statistics

The territory of Japan constitutes the Japan Union Conference, part of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division. Statistics (2024) for Japan: churches, 93; members, 15,043; ordained ministers, 62; licensed ministers, 21; teachers of high school and college, 68. Headquarters for the Japan Union conference: 846 Kamikawai-cho, Asahi-ku Yokohama 241-8501, Japan. Official organ of the union: Adobenchisuto Raifu (Adventist Life).

During the twenty-eighth session of the Japan Union Mission, held in December 1974, the Union was reorganized into sections with administrative supervision and management at the Union level rather than in local Missions. The sections were as follows: Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu-Kansai, Nishi Nippon, and Okinawa.⁵

At the 30th session of the Union Mission in 1983, an action was voted to organize into two Conferences and one Mission.⁶ In the next year, at the following session of the Japan Union Mission, it was voted to organize a Union Conference, the second in the Far Eastern Division.⁷ From then on, the Japan Union Conference has had, in its substructure, the East Japan Conference, the West Japan Conference, and the Okinawa Mission.

Statistics (2024) for the conferences and mission: East Japan Conference: churches, 49; members, 7,983; ordained ministers, 42; licensed ministers, 11. Headquarters are at Tokyo; West Japan Conference: churches, 30; members, 5,024; ordained ministers, 15; licensed ministers 8. Headquarters are at Osaka; Okinawa Mission: churches, 14; members, 2,036; ordained ministers, 5; licensed ministers, 2. Headquarters are in Okinawa.

Institutions

Adventist Medical Center; Fukuinsha (Japan Publishing House); Hiroshima Saniku Gakuin; Kobe Adventist Hospital; Saniku Foods (Japan Food Factory); Saniku Gakuin University and Graduate School; Shalom Nursing Home (Higashikurume); Shalom Nursing Home (Yokohama); Shalom Nursing Home (Yokosuka); Tokyo Adventist Hospital.

Early Seventh-day Adventist Work

As early as the spring of 1889, not long after reaching Hong Kong, Abram La Rue, the pioneer self-supporting missionary to the China coast, made a number of trips to Japan and distributed Seventh-day Adventist publications in Yokohama and Kobe.⁸ Stephen N. Haskell visited Japan in 1890. Writing from Hong Kong on July 16, he reported,

We baptized one man in Japan. There are others there who are interested; and we learned that the Sabbath question has been discussed among the Japanese, and there are some of them keeping the Sabbath.⁹

The first Seventh-day Adventist missionaries sent to Japan were William C. Grainger, of California, former president of Healdsburg College, and Teruhiko H. Okohira, a native of Japan, a former Healdsburg student.¹⁰ They reached Tokyo on November 19, 1896,¹¹ and began work by conducting the Shiba Bible School, which soon had an attendance of 30 young men. One of these young men was Hiizu Kuniya, who was in the first group of four Japanese to be baptized in Japan¹² and who later became one of the first two Japanese ordained Seventh-day Adventist ministers, the other being Okohira. Until his death in 1962, this veteran worker was instrumental in bringing large numbers of converts into the Adventist Church. He had been brought to the Bible school by a friend, fellow soldier, and army doctor, M. Kawasaki, who entered practice in Tokyo and helped Kuniya take his training for the ministry. Dr. Kawasaki set out to learn Seventh-day Adventist methods of treatment in order to become a medical missionary.¹³

In the autumn of 1897, Grainger’s wife and younger daughter joined him. Other workers soon followed: B. O. Wade and his wife, W. D. Burden and his wife (a daughter of the Graingers),¹⁴ and S. Hasegawa, a Japanese person who had attended Healdsburg College.¹⁵ In January 1899, a second Bible school was opened in Tokyo.¹⁶

The first Seventh-day Adventist church was organized in Tokyo in June 1899, with a membership of 13.¹⁷ In July, a monthly church paper, Owari no Fukuin (The Gospel for the Last Days), was launched¹⁸ and paid for by profits from the sale of health foods to foreigners. It was renamed Toki no Shirushi (Signs of the Times) in June 1917.¹⁹

Grainger died October 31, 1899.²⁰ Late in 1901, F. W. Field, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, was sent with his family to serve as superintendent of the Mission.²¹ At that time, the Tokyo Church had about 25 members, and there were several awaiting baptism in Wakayama and Nagasaki. One book had been printed in the Japanese language, and two had been translated and were awaiting publication.

A sanitarium was opened in Kobe on June 1, 1903, with Dr. S. A. Lockwood in charge, assisted by Dr. Kumashiro (later Mrs. Noma) and later by Dr. Kawasaki, both Japanese physicians.²² The Kobe Sanitarium operated until the end of February 1909. In 1908, other Japanese doctors, under the leadership of Dr. Kiku Noma, opened a privately owned sanitarium that carried on the Seventh-day Adventist medical work in Kobe for many years.²³

The first Seventh-day Adventist tent meeting in Japan was held in Tokyo in 1905.²⁴ That same year, two churches were organized--one in Tokyo, and the other in Kobe. In 1906, there were 126 adherents in Japan. The first general meeting for workers was held in January 1907, in the Kobe SDA Church, and was presided over by W. W. Prescott of the General Conference.²⁵ In 1908, the SDA Church entered Hakodate, the chief city on northern island of Hokkaido, and by the end of 1909, there were five churches and about 168 members.

In 1911, the first evangelistic campaign on the island of Shikoku was undertaken.

A training school was opened in Tokyo in 1908,²⁶ and it was headed by Harry F. Benson, who had arrived in Japan in 1906. In 1913, J. N. Herboltzheimer and his wife, both nurses who had worked with Japanese doctors at their sanitarium in Kobe for a time, opened treatment rooms in Yokohama.

With the arrival of more missionaries in 1912 (B. P. Hoffman, A. N. Anderson, and P. A. Webber, and their wives), the importance of acquiring a good knowlesge of the Japanese language was realized. In 1914, a publication house was established, and the first mission headquarters building was erected in the western part of Tokyo.²⁷ The membership then numbered 319.²⁸

In 1915, Japan reported work in three new places and a new church organized at Nagoya. The first church school, under tentative permission, was opened at the Mission headquarters early in September 1915. It was later closed by the authorities, and there were no church schools in Japan until April 1949 when one was opened at Ogikubo in Tokyo.

Early Organization

In 1917, the work in Japan was organized into the Japan Conference, with B. P. Hoffman, who had been superintending the work, selected to serve as president.²⁹

The spring council of the Asiatic Division Committee held in Shanghai in 1919 recommended further reorganization of the Japan field.³⁰ Accordingly, at a conference session held the next August at Gotemba, which is near the foot of Mount Juji, the Japan Union Mission was formed, comprising six local missions: Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Kansai, Chugoku, and Kyushu. B. P. Hoffman became the first Union Mission president.³¹ At that time there were 14 churches and 305 members.³²

Beginning in 1923, the following large denominational books were published in Japanese: Ellen White’s Patriarchs and Prophets, The Great Controversy, and Christ’s Object Lessons, and Uriah Smith’s Thoughts on Daniel and Thoughts on the Revelation. Under the leadership of E. J. Kraft, Union Mission publishing secretary, the colporteur work in Japan grew rapidly.

In 1926, the training school was moved from the congested Tokyo compound to a location that was a spacious 35 rural aces (14 hectares) in Naraha in the province of Chiba, and it was reorganized. Students and teachers did all the work of building, farming, and running the school plant.³³ The program of mental, physical, and spiritual education, alternating earnest study and practical work, attracted the favorable attention of the public and the national and provincial leaders.

With the arrival of Dr. E. E. Getzlaff and his wife in Japan on December 1, 1927,³⁴ a 20-bed hospital was built on the Union Mission compound in Tokyo, and it was opened on May 1, 1929.³⁵

Seventh-day Adventists in Wartime Japan

After the “Shanghai incident” of July 1937, which was a harbinger of war, government control over the lives of the people tightened. Government officials continually visited Christian churches in Japan, keeping watch over the movements of the ministers and laity alike. It was not long before foreign missionaries were considered unwanted in the country, and by 1941, the General Conference had withdrawn all overseas Seventh-day Adventist workers.

Because of their earlier close contacts with the West, these national workers and believers felt more and more suspicion that was placed on Christians by the officials and other people. In 1943, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was dissolved because of its emphasis on the doctrine of the second coming of Christ, which clashed with the current national policy of extending the reign of the imperial house throughout the world.

On September 20, 1943, the Japanese government, in one day, imprisoned 36 Adventist leaders and six laypersons.³⁶ Christian buildings, the publishing house, the school, and the hospital were ordered to be sold.³⁷ It seemed that a deathblow had been dealt with Seventh-day Adventist work in Japan.³⁸

Seventh-day Adventists in Postwar Japan

With the surrender of the Japanese forces and the occupation of Japan by the Allied Powers in the fall of 1945, old restrictions were removed and new liberties were given, which meant the beginning of a new era for Seventh-day Adventists. One of the first actions of General Douglass MacArthur, as supreme commander of the Allied Powers, was the release of political prisoners, which included the Seventh-day Adventist workers.³⁹ Subsequently, he issued a directive that properties wrongfully transferred be returned, under which three former missionaries, who returned to Japan immediately after the surrender, were able to have the Seventh-day Adventist properties returned to the Church. E. J. Kraft arrived in September 1945,⁴⁰ and soon after F. R. Millard and A. N. Nelson came. Millard was appointed first postwar president of the Japan Union Mission on November 18, 1945.⁴¹

With a new constitution, Japan became a democratic nation. Adventist Church members reunited and missionary activities began. The General Conference allocated rehabilitation funds,⁴² and the work began to prosper more than before.

During the 15th session of the Japan Union Mission held in May 1948, the Union Mission, which since the war had operated as a single mission, was divided into the North and South Japan missions.⁴³ President and secretary-treasurer of the North Japan Mission were P. H. Eldridge and Tsuruji Hasegawa, respectively. For the South Japan Mission, the leading officers were V. E. Kelstrom and Kensaku Yasui.⁴⁴ Three years later, in 1951, Okinawa was organized as a regular Mission in the Japan Union Mission, with E. E. Jensen as president.⁴⁵ In 1964, the Hokkaido Mission was organized under the leadership of W. I. Hilliard, president.⁴⁶ In December 1966, the Japan Union Mission office building was moved from Tokyo to Yokohama.⁴⁷

The Japan Voice of Prophecy Bible Correspondence School, set up in Tokyo in 1947,⁴⁸ operated for some years before the first radio program was actually put on the air (on Aug. 2, 1952). The first director of the school was P. H. Eldridge. In 1963, Japanese broadcasts were put on the air not only in Japan, but also in Okinawa, Hawaii, the United States, and South America. During the first 46 years of operation, the Voice of Prophecy Bible correspondence school recorded a total of 809,413 applications, 224,682 enrollments, and 93,812 graduates, which resulted in 8,751 baptisms. In 2024, the total attendance of the students was 143, and recently, the number of inmates who are searching the truth of Scripture through the correspondence school has been increasing. The school is sending the Gospel and hope to them.

Whereas cottage meetings were all that could be attempted before 1941, the postwar interest in Christianity brought people flocking to evangelistic meetings. In a 36-night series of meetings held in Tokyo during 1948, the average attendance was 791 even though the meeting hall was on the fifth floor of an unheated building and it was held during the dead of winter.

Toward the end of 1950, the Japan Publishing House was moved to a new location on the outskirts of Yokohama.⁴⁹ Thirty-five books by Ellen White, newly translated into the Japanese language, have been published since the war. Despite difficult situations, the work of literature evangelism has been conducted persistently. As of 2024, there were 42 colporteurs. Recently programs named “Youth Rush,” in which young people participate, are often conducted.

In 1952, an evangelistic center was opened in Tokyo, comprising the Tokyo Central Church, North Japan Mission office,⁵⁰ the Voice of Prophecy office, and a clinic operated by the Tokyo Adventist Hospital. When the Japan Union Mission moved to its present location, the Voice of Prophecy also relocated on the union compound. The clinic was relocated on the compound of the Tokyo Adventist Hospital in 1973.

In 1959, an evangelistic center was dedicated in Osaka,⁵¹ with Leo Van Dolson serving as its first director. The main-floor auditorium had a seating capacity of 250 and was well furnished with musical and visual-aid equipment. On the second floor, space was provided for a clinic and a dental office. On the third floor were classrooms. There were around-the-calendar programs of evangelism held there. In this center, an English language school program was started, taught by a group of student missionaries and AVSC volunteers. (The center was relocated to another site in Osaka in 1990.)

The Adventist Church saw remarkable growth in postwar Japan. In 1945, the Christian population in Japan was estimated at 200,000, but within 12 years, it surged to over 352,000. Similarly, the Adventist community grew significantly, increasing from 600 members in 1946 to 3,900 by 1958. Growth was aided by the church’s strong health focus and the positive impression created by church members who showed great consistency in refusing to use alcohol and tobacco. It was also assisted by considerable numbers of missionaries, for the impact of the war had made their services essential again. Their aim, however, was to help the Japanese church achieve maturity. This was realized in 1984, when the General Conference Executive Committee voted to reorganize Japan as a Union Conference, beginning January 1, 1985.⁵²

As of 1992, English language schools were operated in Osaka, Kobe, Himeji, Hiroshima, Kagoshima, Tokyo, and Chiba, with a total enrollment of almost 1,000 students that year. As of 2024, there was only one English school in Hiroshima, and the program in Japan ended in March of the year.

As for educational institutions, the Japan Union Conference has four kindergartens, 10 elementary church schools, three junior high schools, one senior high school, and one university, which includes a graduate school of nursing. The college choir is well known for their beautiful performances of sacred music, and the choir made a concert tour of the United States in 1966.

There are three medical institutions with a total of 350 beds: Tokyo Adventist Hospital, Kobe Adventist Hospital, and Adventist Medical Center in Okinawa. These institutions are much appreciated by the communities they serve for their compassionate treatment.

Health food production is one of the unique activities in Japan. Saniku Foods, for a long time, was a part of the Work Education Department of Japan Missionary College (the predecessor of Saniku Gakuin University), and Saniku Foods became a Union institution. Sales in 2024 amount to approximately 400,000,000 yen (as of March 2025, 1 USD = 150 JPY). Soy milk, vegetable protein, and sesame and almond spread are main products, some of which are exported to other countries.

Three nursing homes for seniors were established, the first in 1984, then the second in 1992, and the third in 1998. The first, Shalom Nursing Home (Yokosuka), was established with 50 beds for the elderly with disabilities and 50 beds for the aged with dementia. It is also used as a day care center for those who are living in the nearby districts and have their needs cared for. The second, Shalom Nursing Home (Higashikurume), is located in Tokyo. It was established with 50 beds for those with disabilities and 30 beds for those with dementia. It is also used as a day care center. The third, Shalom Nursing Home (Yokohama) was established with 120 beds. It is also used as a day care center. These nursing homes are managed in a Christian manner and continue to be appreciated by those in need of their services.

Sources

Kajiyama,Tsumoru. The History of Seventh-day Adventist church in Japan. Japan Publishing House, 1982.

Leslie, Frank. “The Senate of Japan.” ARH, August 26, 1890.

Machida, Hidesaburo. “The role and history of Institutions in Adventist church in Japan (part 3).” Adventist Life, June 2015.

Machida, Hidesaburo. “The role and history of Institutions in Adventist church in Japan (part 5).” Adventist Life, December 2015.

Okafuji, Yonezo. The Centennial History of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Japan. Japan Publishing House, 2006.

Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Second revised edition. Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1996. S.v. “Japan.”

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, various years. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Trim, David. "Slow But Sure." Adventist World, August 31, 2018. Accessed April 7, 2025. https://www.adventistworld.org/slow-but-sure/.

Notes

1. The Statistics Bureau and the Director-General for Policy Planning (Statistical Standards) of Japan, “Sekai no Tokei 2025,” 22.↩

2. Yonezo Okafuji, The Centennial History of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Japan. Japan Publishing House, 2006, 13.↩

3. Seventh-day Encyclopedia (1996), s.v. “Japan.”↩

4. Ibid.↩

5. Tsumoru Kajiyama, The History of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Japan. Japan Publishing House, 1982, 476.↩

6. Okafuji, 294-297.↩

7. Ibid., 300.↩

8. Kajiyama, 16.↩

9. Frank Leslie, “The Senate of Japan,” ARH, August 26, 1890, 7 [519].↩

10. Kajiyama, 18-19.↩

11. Ibid., 21.↩

12. Ibid., 28.↩

13. Ibid., 32.↩

14. Ibid., 27.↩

15. Fifty-second Meeting, Foreign Mission Board, June 27, 1898.↩

16. W. C. Grainger, “Japan,” The Missionary Magazine, March 1, 1899, 121.↩

17. Kajiyama, 28.↩

18. Okafuji, 29↩

19. Kajiyama, 518.↩

20. Ibid., 30-31.↩

21. Ibid., 35.↩

22. Ibid., 51.↩

23. Ibid., 52-53.↩

24. Ibid., 104.↩

25. Ibid., 78.↩

26. Hidesaburo Machida, “The role and history of Institutions in Adventist church in Japan (part 3),” Adventist Life, June 2015, 19.↩

27. Hidesaburo Machida, “The role and history of Institutions in Adventist church in Japan (part 5),” Adventist Life, December 2015, 21.↩

28. Kajiyama, 687.↩

29. Ibid., 183.↩

30. Ibid., 189.↩

31. Ibid., 190↩

32. Ibid., 687.↩

33. Okafuji, 39.↩

34. Kajiyama, 304.↩

35. Ibid., 306.↩

36. Ibid., 352-353.↩

37. Ibid., 450.↩

38. Okafuji, 77.↩

39. Ibid., 80-81.↩

40. Kajiyama, 446.↩

41. Ibid., 451.↩

42. Ibid., 463.↩

43. Okafuji, 89-90.↩

44. Ibid., 90.↩

45. Ibid., 99.↩

46. Ibid., 128.↩

47. Ibid., 146.↩

48. Shimei [Message] September 1947.↩

49. Kajiyama, 518.↩

50. Okafuji, 99-100.↩

51. Ibid., 118-119.↩

52. David Trim, "Slow But Sure," Adventist World, August 31, 2018, accessed April 7, 2025, https://www.adventistworld.org/slow-but-sure/; "Japan Union Conference," Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (2025), https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=10408.↩