Japanese Christianity has a history of only one hundred years insofar as the Protestant church is concerned. Japanese theology before World War II was, as a matter of course, rather immature and the theological books published during the time were, generally speaking, mainly ethico-practically oriented books or the translations of foreign theological books. After the end of World War II, not a few able young theological students were sent to European countries and to the United States for the purpose of studying theology. Those students who were sent immediately after the end of the war were especially carefully selected because the international circumstances of the time did not allow many students to go abroad. From about 1960 on, the students of the first generation, so to speak, who were trained in the foreign countries after the Second World War began to come home. The credit for raising the theological level of Japan after the war goes to these persons. One of the most remarkable persons among them is Seiichi Yagi, who has also done much for building up Japanese theology through his attempt at facilitating the dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism. the present essay, I want, in the first place, to introduce Yagi's thought concerning the New Testament and, second, to present his attempt at facilitating the dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism. My comment on Yagi's thought will be found in the last part of this essay. his maiden work, Formation of New Testament Thought (1963), Yagi examined the New Testament by the theological types he found in it; that is, the theme of interpersonality, the theme of individuality, and the theme of community. Jesus had spoken of love, human life, and the law corresponding to these themes respectively, and what Jesus ultimately wanted to say by means of them was, according to Yagi, Reign of God. The love advocated byJesus is personal relationship which has been formed on the fact that man is originally and essentially in the relation (Christ andJesus, pp. 47-48). Martin Buber once said, In the beginning was relation. Accordingly, those who do not presuppose and do not care about their neighbors not only lack love, but also distort their own way of being. And human life, the second theme ofJesus' message, will be fulfilled only when man lives in relationship naturally, leaving a