[1] He worked as a youngster in the family business, being tasked with selling candles and paper in villages close to his home.
He obtained employment in a private home doing domestic chores, and began attending Lincoln Grammar School.
He also played an active role in protesting the Gentlemen's Agreement of 1907, which placed heavy restrictions on further Japanese immigration.
By 1910, the Nichibei was the leading Japanese paper in the area, and by the 1920s it had San Francisco and Los Angeles editions and was read by some 25,000 households across the Western United States.
Continuing his advocacy work in the Japanese immigrant community, Abiko used the paper to editorialize in favor of "morality education" for migrant laborers, encouraging them to settle permanently in the United States and establish families in their new homeland.
The paper continued to enjoy success among its target readership until it was forced to close in 1942, due to the internment of Japanese Americans.
However, unlike most Japanese communities in the United States, no Buddhist temple was ever built, and those colonists who were not Christians converted over time.