It was not until 1886 Yajima got the chance to start actively supporting her Christian beliefs. In this year, the missionary Mary Clement Leavitt (1830–1912) visited Japan to give speeches about temperance, purity, and the elevation of women. Yajima had developed a strong aversion to alcohol and tobacco, which was caused by her abusive husband who was a heavy drinker and an incident in which her office nearly burned down from a lit tobacco pipe. Through this, she gained a strong interest in Mary Clement Laevitt`s missionary speeches. After Leavitt`s call to organize a reform society, Yajima followed this call by attending many lectures and planning to establish women`s society organization with other interested parties. With twenty-eight other women Yajima Kajiko decided on a name and planned bylaws and procedures in membership and the mission statement of the new organization.  All the Japanese WCTU founding members had one thing in common. They had all somehow experienced agony in their lives. As already mentioned, for example Yajima through her abusive husband and the remorse of her affair, Watase Kameko also through an abusive husband, Ushioda Chiseko (1844-1903) through the death of her husband and the upbringing of five children as a single mother and Sasaki Toyoju who on the one hand received the best education available but turned down a marriage and had an affair with a married man as well.

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After discussing the main purpose of the Organization Yajima and Ushioda Chiseko decided through their personal experiences and observation that the biggest social problem in Meiji-Japan was the drinking culture and therefore suggested that the main purpose of the organization should be the promotion of abstinence from alcohol. All in all, the founders agreed that the organization main goal would be to reform the evil ways of society, cultivate morals, prohibit drinking and smoking and promote women`s dignity. With all official matters settled, the Japanese WCTU, also known as Fujin Kyōfukai, was officially founded in December 6, 1886 with Yajima Kajiko as the president, since she played a huge role in the foundation, and Sasaki Toyoju as the secretary.

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However, after some time, a fight between Yajima and Sasaki occurred. Both brought up differently (Yajima raised in the belief of women`s submissiveness and Sasaki with great educational freedoms) and with a nearly twenty years age gap ideological differences and personal disliking led to power struggles among both women. Yajima believed in the main goal of the WCTU of being the fight against alcohol and Sasaki`s main goal was the ban of prostitution.  Since Sasaki`s plan was to advance her views on reform-priorities ahead those of Yajima, she published several articles in which she criticized the old-age perceptions of how women should behave as for example being quiet around men and called for the change from men being the sole public voice of the WCTU, since only women could know and express the true thoughts of a woman.  Her main goal however was the ban of prostitution. That is why she urged the Union in 1887 to discuss the Union`s reform priorities once again. By doing so she convinced many members to identify the “abolition of geisha and prostitutes “as the WCTU main goal.  Yajima responded a few month later with her own article in which she said, that it would be the best, if all the Union`s aims (ban alcohol, tabaco and prostitution) would be seen as equal instead of privileging one over another. Also, she described the WCTU women in a conservative way who should assist their husbands at home and help men in society. After a long fight and many discussions Sasaki decided to leave the WCTU and found another society and the WCTU went its own way by promoting their initial goals.