Meet President Kan Watanabe

LDS Church News
Week ending March 21, 1970

The second of two new mission presidents was appointed this week by the First Presidency to lead the Japan West Mission.

He's Kan Watanabe, former manager of the Church Translation Services Department in the Asian Area and a native of Japan.

The Japan West and Japan East Missions were created this week in Japan by Elder Ezra Taft Benson, Elder Hugh B. Brown and Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, all of the Council of the Twelve, and Elder Bernard P. Brockbank, Assistant to the Twelve.

Announcement of the appointment of Pres. Russell N. Horiuchi, of Japan East was made earlier by the First Presidency.

Pres. Watanabe was born in Komatsu, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, March 23, 1932.

He has been serving in the mission presidency of the Japan Mission and the Northern Far East Mission for about seven years. He served under three mission presidents.

Pres. Watanabe has been a member of the Church for about 20 years. He married Yaeko Shirai of Niigata in 1957. His wife joined the Church in 1950 and has been active in Relief Society and Primary.

Pres. Walter R. Bills, president of the Japan Mission, with head quarters in Tokyo, named two new counselors, Yoshimi Yamamoto and Shigeyuki Masui.

Another change made in Japan by the General Authorities was the renaming of the Japan - Okinawa Mission. It will be known as the Japan Central Mission. Headquarters of the mission will remain in Osaka with Pres. Edward Y. Okazaki as president.

Also created in Japan was the first stake in that country.

Kenji Tanaka, a 43-year-old tourist agent, was named president of the new Tokyo Stake.

While the General Authorities of the Church were in Japan they also dedicated the Mormon Pavilion at the Expo ‘70 World's Fair.

Mission offices in Japan are receiving inquiries from church members concerning the availability of accommodations in the homes of church members in Japan when they visit Expo ‘70.

Mission presidents advise that it will not be possible to secure accommodations in homes and visitors should not count on them.

Those who plan to visit Japan should make advance hotel reservations through a bonded travel agency, and should receive confirmation of space before traveling to Tokyo or Osaka, they advise.

President of the Japan West Mission which encompassed Kyushu, a great man who lived in the Osaka area when I was serving at the suburb of Okamachi Shibu near Toyonaka-shi by the old Osaka Kukko. I remember him as the brother who assisted my companion and I teach a doctor once. He also was mission president when my future wife Eiko Nakama and I requested special permission from Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith to be married in the Hawaiian Temple before she had been baptized a year. He lives in Tokyo and attended the Fukuoka Temple dedication and spoke.

(Submitted by Paul Bowler pbowler@informarch.com)

President Watanabe also served in the Tokyo Temple Presidency shortly after its' opening.