The translation of the Book of Mormon into Japanese took five years and nine months of labor, and the manuscript consisted of twenty-seven handwritten booklets.
Its translator, Alma O. Taylor was only nineteen when he was called as one of the first missionaries to open the Japan Mission in 1901.
None of them knew any Japanese.
However, soon into his mission, Taylor was translating hymns and other doctrinal works and essays, and by the end of June, 1903, Taylor had completed eight chapters of 1 Nephi.
He soon found that he needed outside help to translate and recruited a number of people who were not Latter-day Saints to help with the project.
