In 1951 a convention in Tokyo was attended by some 40 missionary graduates of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead and about 200 native Japanese publishers. N. H. Knorr, then president of the Watch Tower Society, said that he looked forward to the time when there would be so many native Japanese proclaimers of the Kingdom that it would be hard to search out the missionaries among them.

A branch office was established in Kobe early in 1927, and it was transferred to Tokyo later that year.