When the forces that have made for true civilization and for righteousness are figured out, it will be found that the work of the Young Men’s Christian Association has been a very important factor. In Japan, as elsewhere, that work is unusually successful in gaining sympathy and forming a common platform on which all Christians may unite in valuable work. It has there both city and student associations, of which the latter are more numerous and powerful, but the former are increasing in number and influence. The work there is varied, as in other lands, and is constantly broadening out. The visits of Mr. John R. Mott have been peculiarly beneficial to the student class. In two special phases the work of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Japan has been most helpful,—in the establishment of Christian boarding-houses for young men in public schools, and in securing for public high schools and colleges Christian young men from America as teachers of English. And it is a matter of great rejoicing to all interested in the welfare of the girls in the public schools, and shops and factories,[172] of the large cities of Japan that Young Women’s Christian Association work has been started. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and other Christian temperance organizations are fighting the same battles in Japan as in America. The old religions never made any attempt to check the tobacco, liquor, and social evils; they seemed to assume such to be inevitable. Even now the leadership in these social and moral reforms is almost solely in the hands of Christians. By their untiring efforts the public sentiment against these evils is rapidly growing, and various organizations, by public meetings and pages of literature, are trying to lift the people out of these “habits.” A bill prohibiting the sale of tobacco to minors was made a law by the Diet, and one prohibiting the sale of liquor to minors is being pushed. By the indefatigable labors of a Methodist missionary, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and the Salvation Army, some 14,000 girls have been enabled to free themselves from their slavery in the brothels; some of these wicked resorts had to close up; and public sentiment was so vehemently aroused against this evil that the number of visitors to houses of ill-fame considerably decreased. And it is Christian teaching that has disestablished concubinage and is constantly working to purify the family life of Japan. The Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, the Scripture Union, and the Evangelical Alliance are other examples of interdenominational institutions which are doing much to minimize sectarianism and remind Japanese Christians that, in spite of minor differences, they ought to be and are really “one.”