The LDS Church's first baptism in Japan was on March 8, 1902, when Grant baptized Hajime Nakazawa, a former Kannushi (Shinto priest).

It was then recommended that the Book of Mormon be translated into bunshō, a more elegant literary style, which was done by Chōkō Ikuta in 1909, shortly before it was published and distributed.

Missionary work from the opening of the Japan Mission through 1924 was challenging due to language barriers and cultural differences, as well as the 1923 Tokyo earthquake and the Immigration Act of 1924.

A small number of Latter-day Saints in Japan met together privately in their homes from 1924 to 1945, under the leadership of Fujiya Nara and later Fujiwara Takeo.

[9] Grant handpicked the first three missionaries to serve with him in Japan: Horace S. Ensign, Louis A. Kelsch, and Alma O. Taylor.

He decided to help Grant by writing a book that would introduce the mission of the Latter-day Saints to the Japanese people.

[15] From 1902 to 1924, eighty-eight missionaries proselyted in twenty-nine locations, laboring largely in Tokyo, Sapporo, and Osaka, performing 166 baptisms.

[16] However, on August 7, 1924, Grant, then president of the church, closed the mission to await a more favorable time, due to the low number of baptisms.

[25] Some Japanese saw the polygamous practices of Latter-day Saints as a direct offense to the attempts to eliminate laws and traditions surrounding concubines.

The elders had no working knowledge of Japanese and the reputation of the LDS Church made it difficult for them to find native speakers who were willing to help them with the language.

Mission president Horace S. Ensign requested that each missionary use his spare time translating the Book of Mormon into Japanese.

[34] From 1924 to 1945, the LDS Church withdrew its missionaries, leadership, and organizational structure, leaving the Japanese Latter-day Saints on their own.

Losing contact with the main body of the church created a challenge for the remaining members, with no one to lead their congregation.

He was baptized four years later on July 6, 1915, in the Tama River in Tokyo by Joseph H. Stimpson, the Japan Mission president at the time.

[41] Following World War II, the period from 1945 to 1951, or the Occupation of Japan by the Allied Forces has been called the "Christian boom".

With newly declared religious freedom and tough post-war conditions, the Japanese people were more interested in Christianity than they had been for a long time.

Clissold had been part of the United States military occupation forces in Japan after World War II.

Nara Fujiya noticed the advertisement, responded, and some Japanese Saints were located and started to take part in Clissold and other servicemen's church activities.

[48] This split created the largest transfer within a mission boundary in the world from Naha, Okinawa, to Asahigawa, Hokkaidō.

After inventing a new proselytizing plan based on teaching the Bible, bearing testimony, and inviting the investigator to be baptized, baptisms grew from 129 in 1956 to 616 in 1957.

On April 26, 1964, the first meetinghouse in Asia, the Tokyo North Branch, was dedicated by Gordon B. Hinckley, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Unable to organize an official Relief Society, women would often meet together in sister missionaries' apartments and learn to cook.

The women would deliver welfare supplies from the Relief Society in the United States to families with children in Sunday School.

[60] Within the same week, the church opened a display at Expo '70 in Osaka, featuring a new version of the LDS film Man's Search for Happiness created specially for this event.

[63] Ten percent (6,658,532) of the guests who attended the Expo visited the Mormon Pavilion, which was a temporary display that introduced the people of Japan to the LDS Church.

Tsuneo Ishikawa, president of the Chukyo Television Broadcasting Company, hosted an extravagant reception for the choir in Nagoya.

In October 2023, church president Russell M. Nelson announced the intent to construct the Osaka Japan Temple.

[citation needed] Two events that created challenges to Latter-day Saint missionary work in Japan were the death of Emperor Hirohito in 1989 and the Tokyo subway attack in 1995 by the religious group Aum Shinrikyō.

[71] Due to deeply rooted religious and cultural belief systems that have lasted for centuries, converting to another religion was associated with becoming non-Japanese.

[72] The second event that created challenges for LDS missionaries in Japan was the Tokyo subway sarin attack by Aum Shinrikyō.