It's hard work, but direct on-the-street and door-to-door distribution of gospel materials can be a rewarding and effective ministry.  Admittedly, compared to most parts of the world, the percentage of responses in Japan is low, but you do get responses - and the materials distributed may have a lasting influence on many others who do not respond at that time.  In our own experience during our Hiroshima ministry, we could expect about one response for every thousand items distributed.  This is, believe it or not, a much higher response rate than most missionaries in Japan report.  One reason may be that we rarely passed out simple tracts.  Instead, we looked for materials that are a little nicer and more difficult to throw away.  The Digest Bible (63 pages of selected Scriptures) and cassette tapes, both our own "home-made" Abundant Life tape and Campus Crusade's Life of Jesus tape, are materials that we used a lot.  These higher quality materials cost more, but they also have a chance of being kept for long periods of time.  Sometimes we got positive comments months later from people who received a Bible or a tape during our summer outreaches.  This ministry has also been a great way for short-term workers to have an impact.  Summer workers and church members going door-to-door passing out a Bible or tape as a present from the church get a lot of attention.  We always included an invitation to a special outreach event or other follow-up means with materials distributed.  On-the-street distribution and mailbox distribution (legal in Japan) are also effective and require fewer language skills than going door-to-door.

In central Osaka there is less of a neighborhood feel than the part of Hiroshima where we lived (and there are simply way more people!), so we will probably do a lot more on-the-street and mailbox distribution, but if we have an established presence in a particular neighborhood, or plan to hold a special event there, we hope to get the time to knock on some doors also. And we will continue to use quality materials like the Digest Bible to the extent that our support funds allow.