Their problems really do seem to date exactly from 1995 when the generation teaching was changed. Is there any other evidence to suggest that Japanese Witnesses took the dropping of the generation teaching particularly hard? Because it sounds like a good working theory.
10 Years Japan losses 5,400 Publishers and 638 Kingdom Halls! Why?
by Witness 007 88 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
jwstudy
I'm from Japan
It seems that the impact of " generation teaching change" was huge for them.
The effects are gradual but obvious.
And "Overlapping generation" doctrine may cause distrust for many.
It is unbelievable that "Overlapping generation" were voted by 2/3 GB members.
JWSTUDY
-
LoisLane looking for Superman
JWStudy >>>Are you some one's Study or are you a baptized JW, active or inactive?
I hope you will stay and tell us more.
Are you helping Japanese JW's to wake up and understand The Watch Tower Society is not honorable? They are liars.
Just Lois
-
DaCheech
I would think that Japanese people are smarter than what some of these people --> I see in the kingdom hall here in the US?
-
slimboyfat
If you argue that people are smarter in Japan and that's why they are leaving the Witnesses, then you need to answer the obvious question why so many became Witnesses in the first place.
No sorry I don't buy that explanation, and I don't like it either.
I am rather intrigued by the possibility that they were particularly affected by the generation change in 1995 however. It seems very plausible to me. We know that 1975 affected countries very differently. The Philippines for example experienced steep decline in the years following 1975, whereas some other countries continued growing like nothing happened. There was apparently big variation in the extent to which 1975 was pushed at a local level, and thus the consequences in the years after when nothing happened.
What the generation teaching pushed especially hard in Japan before 1995?
-
slimboyfat
Was the generation teaching pushed particularly hard in Japan up to 1995?
-
wha happened?
Well I've worked with several large corporations based in Japan. Procedures and goals are everything. I remember working on one project that required us to update 5000 Tivo units that had shipped to Best Buy, with the wrong software. In their haste, they air shipped 5000 more. Those also had bad software. So we were contracted to update 10k Tivo units.
We hired a group of temporary workers and along with procedures set in place by the manufacturer, began our work.
Those 1st two days were hell. We had to get up to speed but that excuse fell on deaf ears as all they knew, was we failed, for two days in a row. From the assembly line complaints to the execs in Japan basically calling us stupid lazy americans, I had to answer a million emails and offer my 1st born. And apologize to everyone.
In the end when we beat the factory. We could make small adjustments in the assembly line but in Japan they did everything exactly as they are told, even if it could be improved upon. It caused such an uproar that they sent a director from Boston to confirm it.
They take everything very literal and if there is a failure, heads roll. I can see how these sudden changes to skew results in the WT would cause a number of the Japanese publishers to look at it as another stupid American religion that falls on it's face,
On the other hand I think the numbers would have fallen further if not for the pride factor over there.
-
cobaltcupcake
As BluesBrothers mentioned, I remember back in the '80s almost hating the Japanese brothers. They were getting more press than that fictional pioneer sister with an unbelieving mate, 5 children under the age of 10, a full-time job, and a wooden leg.
-
slimboyfat
Yeah Japanese pioneers, along with the sister in the iron lung, went down in Witness mythology.
-
jgnat
I recognize the Japanese habit to adopt the best from the world and improve on it.
Case in point, Kobe Beef, the Tea Ceremony, and the Katana.
Likely, the WTS floppy theology was found to be substandard.