ON September 6, 1926, a Japanese-born pilgrim (traveling overseer) in the United States returned to Japan as a missionary. Waiting to welcome him was the lone subscriber to The Watch Tower, who had started a Bible study group in Kobe. The Bible Students had their first assembly on January 2, 1927, in that city. A total of 36 attended, and 8 were baptized.

In May 1927, enterprising Bible Students launched a public witnessing campaign to advertise a series of Bible lectures. For the first talk, to be held in Osaka, the brothers set up sidewalk signs and large billboards throughout the city and sent 3,000 invitations to prominent people. They distributed 150,000 handbills and advertised the talk in Osaka’s major newspapers and on 400,000 train tickets. On the day of the talk, two airplanes flew over the city, scattering 100,000 handbills. Some 2,300 people filled Osaka Asahi Hall to capacity to hear the talk “The Kingdom of God Is at Hand.” About a thousand others had to be turned away. After the talk, over 600 attendees remained for a question-and-answer session. During the following months, public Bible talks were given in Kyoto and other cities in western Japan.

In October 1927, the Bible Students arranged talks in Tokyo. Invitations again went out to key individuals​—including the prime minister, members of parliament, and religious and military leaders. Posters, newspaper ads, as well as 710,000 handbills were used, and a total of 4,800 attended the three lectures in Japan’s capital.