ABSTRACT
Japanese social reformer and evangelist. In the 1930s Toyohiko Kagawa was the most widely recognized Japanese Protestant in the Western world. Hailed by the U.S. press as “Japan’s Gandhi,” “Japan’s Schweitzer,” or “the St. Francis of Japan” because of his reputation for PACIFISM and selfless service to JAPAN’S poor, translations of his theological and economic writings were brought out by major publishers. He addressed over a million people in the United States and Europe on speaking tours in which he stressed his belief that the gospel demanded social and economic reform. Brotherhood Economics is the most concise expression of his vision of a world economy based on cooperative rather than capitalist enterprises. Especially admired by liberal Protestants, Kagawa delivered the Rochester Theological Seminary’s Rauschenbusch Lectures in 1936. A biography published in 1932 by the Protestant missionary William Axling was crucial in establishing the reputation that led Kagawa to such venues.
