I knew exactly why I was there: to hear a great orator deliver a sermon. But a question kept running through my mind: "Why, of all people, had Jesse Jackson come to Asia?"

Ostensibly, Jackson was in Japan to pressure Mitsubishi Motors about labor rights. He wants the automaker to change its employment practices in light of the sexual-harassment dispute at its U.S. subsidiary. That's laudable, but Mitsubishi is unlikely to resolve the issue on its home soil.

He was also meeting with other Japanese automakers to request that more of their U.S. dealerships be managed by minorities. The only commitments to affirmative action he would receive, however, would be promises "to study the situation."

Later, he was flying to the other end of Asia -- just ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher's official visit -- to address labor-related matters in Indonesia. Foreign-owned factories there are reportedly abusing workers, including children, as a cheap source of labor. Wages are said to be just two dollars a day, versus the current U.S. minimum of $4.25 an hour.

Jackson has strong views on this. As he once told an audience in Dallas: "The American worker can compete with the Mexican worker, we can compete with the Chinese worker. (But) we cannot compete with slave labor, and we should not have to. Let's raise their standards and not lower our own."

Jesse Jackson has been called both an opportunist and a prophet. He reached political centerstage during failed campaigns for the U.S. Presidency in 1984 and 1988. Since then, he has been a freelance ambassador, pleading for peace outside Israel's Hebron mosque, observing Nelson Mandela's election in South Africa, assessing the possibility of Nigerian civil war for Bill Clinton, fasting for Haitians' immigration rights.... His willingness to represent causes is unquestionable.

But does Asia need him?

Before Jackson took the pulpit in Tokyo, I was skeptical. His skillful use of biblical aphorisms and emotive phrases like "slave labor" can easily rouse a crowd to anger. Drama seems to follow him like a shadow. Wouldn't his time be better spent denouncing church burnings in America?

At last the Reverend rose to give his sermon, looking quite regal in his black robes. Jackson is a big man, a strong, yet gentle man, and the softness of his voice surprised me as he began to talk of the "ties that bind" us. He put on his rectanglar folding spectacles. He read some verses. And then it started, like a wave forming out at sea. Building momentum and rapport with the congregation, his voice rose in force and clarity.

This was not a voice meant for sound bites, but the voice of a man with a mission. Within fifteen minutes, his message was hitting like breakers on the shore, condemning nuclear testing. He quoted from Isaiah: "Study war no more." Use the money and resources saved to improve conditions for the sick and poor. He called on Christians and Buddhists, people of all colors, all nationalities, to work for peace and justice, to improve working conditions and share in prosperity. The Golden Rule was the only action plan anyone needed.

And that's when his reason for being in Asia struck me: This trip was an extension of his ministry. He was doing work he believed in, leaving his "comfort zone" to act as Asia's conscience for the rights of workers no one else stood up for. His voice shook the chamber as he charged us: "I'm not saying you should be your brother's keeper. Be your brother's brother. Be your sister's sister."

This man had traveled half the world to help his own brothers and sisters, and those of other cultures at the same time. He was in Japan because no Japanese were serving as the automakers' conscience. He was in Asia because not enough Asians are standing up for their own workers' rights.

Jackson touched more than a few people at Tokyo Union Church, and after. Following his meeting with Megawati Sukarnoputri, daughter of Indonesia's former President Sukarno, she remarked "Although we have different cultures, we have the same shared values of democracy and rights of labor." Or as Jackson has put it: "Somewhere beyond color, beyond culture, is something called character."

Asia needs more of this character, more of its own crusaders speaking for peace and human rights. Only when Asia's own voices cry out loudly for social justice and equal opportunity, will Jesse Jackson be needed here no more.