In May 1954, Don Haslett had helped to establish a new missionary home near Iidabashi railway station, in the Chiyoda-Ku area of Tokyo. The group of new missionaries that first served there had the usual problems with the language. There was no one to teach them, and there were no Japanese publishers in that area. It was only by the help of Jehovah’s spirit that they were able to start studies with their halting use of the Japanese language, and some of these people started to attend meetings in the missionary home. In due course, these missionaries formed the seventeenth congregation in Japan. Now there are thirty-three congregations in Tokyo city alone!

Don and Mabel Haslett served faithfully from this home from 1954 until Brother Haslett’s death on February 20, 1966. He spearheaded the building of Japan’s first Kingdom Hall to be erected outside the branch and the missionary homes. This is the Shinjuku, Tokyo, Kingdom Hall, which serves also the Ichigaya Congregation in Tokyo, and which has recently been enlarged to accommodate the crowds that attend there.

Many who learned the truth from Don and Mabel Haslett and the other missionaries in the Chiyoda home have entered pioneer work. Some later served at the Tokyo Bethel. The original congregation in this area has divided, and divided again, so that today in the area originally served by the Chiyoda missionaries there are nine congregations.