Social Compass, XXIV, 1977/1, 97-120
Bryan WILSON
Aspects of Kinship and the Rise of
Jehovah's Witnesses in Japan
That the profound processes of social and religious change that have
occurred in Japan since the last war should have opened the way for the
recent rapid growth in the number of Jehovah's Witnesses in that
country is scarcely surprising. Where they have not been banned or
persecuted (and sometimes even where they have), the Witnesses have
grown in almost all parts of the world. Yet Japanese traditions, both
social and religious, could hardly in themselves be regarded as
propitious for the development of this movement. The Watchtower Bible
and Tract Society demands that Jehovah's Witnessbandon customs that are in any way contravened by the Bible, and
the Japanese cultural inheritance includes many such customs. The
emphasis on family loyalty, respect for seniors, continuing obligation
to one's group, reverence for ancestors, consciousness of one's clan
and, beyond that, of one's national identity1 are cultural values that
still persist, and they are values that are likely to be profoundly
disturbed by the individual's allegiance to the sect. The emphasis on
the martial arts - kendo, judo, and karate - that are taught in
Japanese schools, is another issue on which the Jehovah's Witnesses may
come into conflict with the values of the wider society. In any
society, becoming a Witness entails the abandonment of previous social
involvements, the exercise of a well-defined system of injunctions and
constraints that are regarded as universal in their applicability, and
the adoption of a new social group of ertswhile strangers now to be
regarded exclusively as brothers. In Japan, the rigour of this
transformation is sharpened by the absence of any general lay tradition
of this-wordly asceticism based on transcendent, universalistic moral
norms expressed in abstract and absolute terms.
Japanese traditional religion, with its emphasis on Buddhist rituals,
veneration of ancestors, household shrines, and shamanistic
performances, is scarcely a seed-bed for radical Christian lay
asceticism of a highly rationalistic type. The life-style and austere
religious practice of the Witnesses is quite remote from the pervasive
symbolism, liturgical richness, music, dance, and gesture of
traditional Japanese religion. The rituals of purification, the
charms, offer of tributes, supplicatory performances, are all entirely
alien to the intellectual, matter-of-fact orientation of the Watchtower
movement, with its systematic programme of study and missionary
training.
The syncretistic, multiform religious traditiote for some Japanese before the first sustained effort of
adherents of the Watchtower movement to win recruits in the 1920s. As
local community solidarity was transcended by new societal patterns of
organization, new forms of religious expression, many of them rooted in
the past of course, emerged. The projection of local shamanism on a new
scale2 and the creation of new resources for guidance and support in
every-day rural and small town life are evident in the rise of new
movements such as Tenry-kyo, Omoto, and Konko-kyo, already in the
nineteenth century. As some aspects of traditional religion decayed
under the impress of the making of a modern society, another type of
movement, with its origins evident even before the war, emerged once the
war was over, for by then Shintoism had fallen into discredit, the cult
of the Emperor was compulsorily abandoned, and in the period following a
humiliating defeat there was a resurgence of revitalization movements in
Japan. In particular the new lay associations, organized for the
promotion of a resuscitated Buddhism, became a new powerful religious
force. The new movements owed much to the past, but their spirit, their
mass organization, and their dynamic programme of activities, were very
much part of the new urban society that was emerging in Japan. It was
perhaps symptomatic that some of the new movements, for example Soka
Gakkai, the largest of them, and Tensho-kotai-jingu-kyo, should call for
the abandonment of ancestor veneration. This was perhaps a gesture of
the diminished significance of past tradition, but also, at least in the
case of Soka Gakkai an implicit recognition of the changed circumstances
of many young Japanese families, newly settled in cities, without the
obligation, or even the right, to venerate ancestors. Other new
movements, particularly those stemming from Omoto have steadily sought
to moderate their original animistic conceptions and their attributio ns
of divinity to le steadily adopted a more
explicit concern with welfare, and a religious style less at variance
with the functional rationality that is increasingly pervasive in the
secular sphere. Thus, ritual purification, the veneration of ancestors,
local deities, and sacred places; sacrificial tribute; and an animistic
worldview-have all become less intrinsically vital. In at least one
sect, the leaders have for some time been selfconsciously seeking a more
modern, abstract formulation for their beliefs and means by which to
persuade their largely rural following to abandon the more archaic and
superstitious aspects of cult practice, and their belief in the almost
magical intercessory powers of their leader.3
The changes that have occurred in Japan since the war have been
conducive to the promotion of an essentially secularized society. These
changes include the massive relocation of population in cities, with
the consequent lesion of traditional ties with the land, and the
decline in importance of kinship ties, as the significant unit of
association in the cities has increasingly become the nuclear family,
replacing the extended kinship and clan affiliation of the past. The
consequent diminution of ancestor worship has occurred because the
builders of new houses have neither the obligation nor the right to
venerate ancestors.4 In a period in which an unprecedented number of
new houses were built in new locations, ancestor veneration must
therefore decay: and with it the filial piety, reverence for the past,
for tradition, and for a supernaturalistic interpretation of the
meaning of life that the ancestor cult implied.
The process of social change has involved the acceptance of new
impersonal roles and participation in anonymous society-itself a new
type of social interaction for Japanese.5 The diminution of family
involvement and obligation has facilitated the development of a measure
of iough, not surprisingly, strong
authority relationships have also persisted, particularly in the
workplace. Much has been made, in the explanation of the new religions
of Japan and their extraordinary growth, of the profound shock
experienced by the Japanese people by defeat in war, and by the
consequent loss of their sense of national identity following the
demotion of the Emperor from his god-like status.6 If this factor is
indeed of importance in explaining the rapid growth of new Buddhist and
Shinto sects, it may also have some significance in explaining the
appeal of an entirely alien religion, which provides a strong focus of
identity for the individual whilst also forging powerful bonds of
association in an active and urgent cause, and which combines the
demand for a high level of personal dedication and the assertion of
unquestionable authority. Without resting too much on McFarland's
contentious proposition, it can be said that the Witnesses offer, in
only a slightly less immediate sense, the idea of an all-powerful god,
who is more than an emperor, and whose son is soon to rule over the
whole earth as the authoritative, if not the authoritarian, head of a
theocracy.
Like some of the new sects, and in particular like Soka Gakkai, the
Watch Tower movement is a well-organized mass movement, with a strong
secular spirit, committed to highly rational patterns of action, and
embracing a constellation of concerns that relegate what might be
called strictly worshipful activities very much to a residual position.
In other respects, of course, it differs radically from all indigenous
movements. It promotes no purely social activities, and does not
provide any of that range of facilities - welfare, medical,
educational, and recreational - that are normally part of the stock in
trade of the new religions of Japan. It offers no special therapeutic
benefits for the improvement of everyday-life performances, and it is
much of evangelization than any of them,
even than was Soka Gakkai in its most vigorous proselytizing period in
the early 1960s. Much more than the indigenous religious movements, new
or old, it has a very exact sense of doctrine, of which specific study
is demanded of all who join: it has, in Glock's sense of the term, a
much more explicit and single minded intellectual commitment. Beyond
all this, there is the centrality of the idea of the millennium, which
is quite unlike what is offered by any of the new religions of Buddhist
and Shinto origin. Of course, some other Christian groups active in
Japan also proclaim the proximity of a new dispensation for believers,
but none of them has enjoyed anything like the recent success
experienced by Jehovah's Witnesses.
Inevitably, some aspects of the appeal and attraction of the Witnesses
bear some points in common with those of any of the new movements. All
provide a new interpretation of life, and confer a new sense of purpose
and, in greater of lesser degree, engage the votary in a mission that
requires action, even if not in the full sense of competition familiar
to Christians, none the less, competitive with that of other religious
bodies. Above all, these new groups generally provide the benefits of
strong new associations for people who have experienced the rapid
erosion of traditional communal bonds. In other respects, the Witnesses
offer things not available through the indigenous movements. It is
western; apparently non-hierarchical; fraternal and egalitarian in
spirit; and, in the implications of the future world order that it
promises, it is as radical as a thorough-going communist party in its
proletarian, rational, anti-nationalist, and anti-racial emphases.
Unlike many of the new religious movements of Japan, the Watch Tower
movement communicates genuine indifference to material things, but does
so without the virtuoso asceticism characteristic of elite religious
dispositions, wheic or the western
Calvinist traditions. The Japanese people in general have become
preoccupied with gambling, recreation, television, and other
conspicuously hedonistic uses of their leisure time, and this has
occurred much more quickly and extensively than was the case with
westerners. These developments suggest a shift in their central value
orientations that has occurred less gradually than similar shifts
occurred in the west and that has perhaps resulted, in consequence, in
considerable value confusion. Thus, despite the preoccupations with
consumption goods that has become increasingly manifest in Japan since
the late 1950s, the Watch Tower ideology is capable of awakening the
old attitude to consumer buying that is said to have prevailed in Japan
before the war- namely, a distrust of the idea that satisfaction is to
be derived from amassing commodities.7
Above all else, perhaps, the Witnesses offer a wide range of practical
advice, couched in language of authority, on marital relations, moral
issues, the rearing of children, and other practical matters. In their
rapidly changing society, there is widespread uncertainty on these
subjects among the Japanese. Fukutake writes, " Parents of the prewar
generation, in particular, have had their confidence in the values by
which they were raised shaken since the war; not knowing how to
construct a new set of values they were not sure how to bring up their
children. Children who were raised in this confusion are now trying to
bring up their own children. This young generation of parents, impelled
to bring up their children differently from the way they were treated,
have not yet established a method of socializing children suitable to
the nuclear family." 8
For such parents, the Witnesses have a great deal to offer by way of
firm advice substantiated in Holy Writ and integrated into a coherent
philosophy of life dominated by single-minded licitly enunciated, by a range of experience of how these
precepts are interpreted in western culture, where the nuclear family
is much longer established, and where its particular problems have
become well known. Furthermore, the advice of the Witnesses has the
added cachet of being offered uniformly and without concessions to
local cultural preoccupations. It is offered without being patronizing
and without privilege or prejudice, and it has the strength of being
uncompromising. This facet of Watch Tower teaching has been given
considerable prominence in the movement's literature in recent years,
but if it is of importance in explanation of the movement's growth in
Japan, it is so only in the context of the whole Gestalt of
Watch Tower teaching. The movement's teaching on this subject cannot be
used independently of other doctrines as a more authoritative
alternative to the ideas of Dr. Spock. No one adopts Watch Tower
religion explicitly for its beneficial consequences: its teachings with
respect to the upbringing of children cannot be regarded as an analogue
of rice in the recruitment of natives by the old Catholic and
Protestant missions. The teaching on children can have meaning and
benefit only if the doctrine of the movement is accepted in its
entirety- it is a fruit of total commitment, not a lever with which to
draw puzzled people into the sect.
This demand for total commitment at a high level is, in practice at
least, a distinguishing feature of Jehovah's Witnesses when compared
with other Christian denominations and sects. Of course, human
commitment is never uniform, either between different persons, or for
one person at different times in his career cycle as a believer: there
are always, even among Witnesses, more and less committed people,
people of stronger and people of weaker motivation. But allowing this,
the movement as a whole characterized, much more than most others, by
relatively uniform, high-level csheer
intensity of this demand may be in itself a factor in the movement's
success. In return for total allegiance and active involvement, the
believer is offered certainty, future security, and authority. In the
modern world these are scarce commodities: for those brought up in a
society not so long since dominated by strict authoritarianism, and
within which powerful-if sometimes compromised-authority still
persists, but within which a new, untempered, and strident criticism of
authority is also now and newly evident, these values may enjoy special
appeal.
The Watch Tower movement, while exerting unbreakable authority, also
offers community and comradeship. Witnesses learn to disabuse
themselves with respect to worldly status, material goods, and social
power; and even if these things are not relinquished absolutelyand
there is, in practice, room for individual discretion about wealth and
status - there is, within the movement, a vigorous cultivation of a
spirit of equality, and the expectation of equal participation in
essentially similar missionary work. In consequence, the movement
provides Witnesses, both locally and internationally, with bond of
group allegiance enjoyed on absolutely equal terms. While material
equality in not demanded, and differences of wealth and well-being
remain, the sense of equality is sustained, with the opportunity for
sacrifice (for example, by pioneering) for those who wish to take it.
For Japanese, the movement becomes a new clan affiliation, transcending
whatever obligations remain from the old clan system and from other
group networks that remain so powerful in Japanese society. For the
individual Witness, there is also the opportunity to experience, if not
exactly the sense of spiritual growth, then, the more tangible evidence
of progress in missionary work, in publishing, conducting Bible
studies, of bringing people into " the Truth," and - although it is not
much vaunted - there ho were " one of my
studies." In a culture in which spiritual growth has long been an
established goal for those religiously disposed, these aspects of
progress provide a modern surrogate, a more immediately recognizable
surrogate, and one that is more susceptible to the general modern,
secular assumption that growth, if it exists, should be measurable. And
in actuality, of course, in recent years the progress of the Witnesses
has been such that all members have felt the power of their own
endeavours.
Perhaps more than anything else, however, the Witnesses profit from the
congruence of their ethic with that of secular life in Japan. The
beliefs, assumptions, and procedures of the movement are matter-of-fact
and empirical; the style of argument, given its premises, is rational.
There is no recourse to mysticism, emotionalism, or sacramental
devotionalism, and there is no magic. The Watch Tower movement has
purged all these elements that persist still in orthodox Christianity -
in Catholic Christianity in particular, but residually also even in most
branches of Protestantism. Liturgy is minimal, scarcely discernible by
that name, and undertaken in a spirit quite distinct from the cultivated
solemnity of institutionalized church ritual. Thus, for the Japanese,
there is much less that is explicitly foreign in the procedures of a
meeting of the Witnesses than in other Christian groups. There are no
obscure performances that owe their (sometimes several) levels of
meaning to cultural accretions in the West, or to magical or mystical
notions that I remain difficult to translate into Japanese terms.
Procedures conform to everyday expectations: very little is done for
which a practical reason cannot be provided. The whole orientation is
pragmatic and rational. The teachings are clear and unequivocal, and
uniformly understood among all informed participants. The individual's
relationship to the movement is defined explicitly and solely by his
acceptaectual propositions that can be
formally stated. The traditional Christian churches, in contrast, not
only suffer from ethnocentric western liturgies and assumptions, but
from uncertainty in doctrine, theological obscurity, dispute about
liturgy, and confusion about ethics. What the Japanese convert would be
asked to accept by a traditional Christian church would lack certain
authority even if it possessed intellectual clarity. Nor would communal
allegiance be so powerful, even in Japan. In contrast, the Witnesses
appear, despi te their rejection of the social and welfare concerns
which the Japanese have come to expect of new religious movements, to
have very considerable advantages.
In consequence of all this it is perhaps not surprising that, despite
the vigorous efforts of Christian missionaries since the beginning of
the Meiji era in 1868, modern Japan has remained less susceptible to
the Christian message than did feudal Japan before the supression of
Roman Catholicism in the seventeenth century.9 Today, only 0.5 per cent
of Japanese are Christians, and these of a variety of persuasions,
including the United Church of Japan and the uniquely Japanese
Mukyokai, a movement of non-church Christianity, founded by
Uchimura Kanzo.10 Against this background-of secularization; vigorous
new Buddhist sects; traditional Buddhism and Shinto; and the diversity
of mission and indigenous Christian denominations - the growth in
Japan, since the early l 950s, of the number of Jehovah's Witnesses has
been, if uneven, none the less impressive. In 1975, there were 33,480
publishers in the country.
The first attempt to spread the Watchtower message to Japan occurred,
as was the case with other Asian countries, during the time of Pastor
Russell's presidency of the movement. Russell visited Japan in 1911,
and, in a speech in Tokyo, he condemned the type of material
inducements that were offered by Ct
potential converts. For some years, preoccupied with internal troubles
and reorganization, the Society did nothing else to promote the work in
Japan. But in the 1920s, evangelistic activity began again under the
leadership of an American-Japanese, Junzo Akashi, who became a
missionary of the Society. Within a few years of this new beginning,
the movement encountered official disapproval, and in 1933 the
distribution of The Watchtower and of some other publications of
the Society was prohibited. Despite this ban, the Witnesses claim that
a widespread dissemination of magazines was sustained, and in 1938 as
many as one hundred and ten full-time colporteurs were active in the
country. Regular companies (as congregations were then called) were not
formed however, and only street meetings were held.
During the Sino-Japanese war mid 1930s, government control of
religion increased, and directives were issued to religious bodies: a
period of increasing oppression ensued for the movement, which was
known in Japan at that time as Todai-sha (The Lighthouse).
Conflict with the state occurred not only with respect to the issues
common to the experience of the Witnesses in other countries, such as
conscription for military service, but also the more general matter of
the worship of the emperor. Open defiance on this subject by the
Witnesses led the authorities to take more decisive action, and on 21
June 1939, one hundred and thirty members of Todai-Sha were
arrested in various parts of Japan, and some of them, before being
given long prison sentences, were subjected to torture. These included
Akashi, who, sometime after being released after the war, renounced his
faith. Todai-sha was banned as an illegal organization in
1940.11
Very few Japanese Witnesses survived the war-time persecutions, and the
movement would scarcely have survived at all without new missionary
effort. The ded more easily because the
Witnesses were an American movement, and because of the American
occupation of Japan. The Watchtower Society, however, had the
difficulty of finding people to work in this new field, and in 1947
recruited special pioneers who were prepared to learn Japanese: early
in 1949, the first of these new missionaries established themselves in
Tokyo. Teaching Japanese, even when it was regarded as merely a spoken
language, was clearly a problem, and for some time some meetings could
be held only in English. Organizing the publication of The
Watchtower and study books in Japanese presented further problems,
and the first issue of The Watchtower in that language was not
produced until May, 1951: one thousand copies were printed.
Awake! became available in Japanese only in 1956. By 1972, the
number of copies of the two magazines distributed in a year was not far
short of six million copies.
Following a pattern of operation adopted in other new mission
fields, the missionaries began in the capital and gradually established
missionary homes in other principal cities. In 1951, they established
themselves in Kobe, Nagoya, Osaka, and Yokohama, all of them places with
well over one million inhabitants, and in that year there were,
including about forty missionaries, about 260 publishers in Japan. In
1952, Kyoto, Sendai, and Okinawa became centres for missionary activity.
The policy adopted was to start a missionary centre, operate from it for
a few years, then, once the local work had become well-established, to
transfer the missionary effort to other centres: the original places of
missionary activity were then left in the hands of the growing body of
indigenous pioneers and the rank-and-file publishers. Thus, in the late
1950s, missionaries ceased to operate in Yokohama, Kyoto, and Sendai,
but new missionary homes were set up in Hiroshima, Sapporo, Fuknoka,
Kumamoto, Kagoshima, Sasebo, and Hakodate, most of which aes. Some of these centres were closed in the mid 1960s,
and the missionary effort was transferred to Okayama, Nagasaki, and
Matsuyama, and in 1970 to Numazu, where the new printing presses for
Watchtower publications in Japanese were established, and which was also
chosen as the site for the Kingdom Ministry School for Japan to provide
courses for ministerial servants and elders. The printing house was
built on a lavish scale with capacity far in excess of what has as yet
been required to publish the movement's literature in the country.
Despite the effort and expenditure, and the fact that vigorous new
Buddhist sects were growing rapidly in Japan, the initial growth of the
Witnesses was not so dramatic. By 1965, there were only 3,639
publishers, and in 1966, 4,112, an increase of thirteen per cent on the
previous year. Exactly the same rate of annual increase was registered
the following year, when there were 4,647 publishers. But the figures
for 1968 showed an eighteen per cent increase in that year, and the
figures for 1969 a twenty-five per cent increase over 1968. This
percentage increase oscillated between twenty-three and twenty-six per
cent in succeeding years until the 1974 results showed a thirty-eight
per cent increase followed in 1975, when the total number of active
publishers exceeded 33,000, by a thirty-four per cent increase over
1974. There were 787 congregations. These figures leave aside Okinawa,
which had not experienced such high growth rates until 1975, when there
too an annual rate of increase of just under thirty per cent was
achieved with 871 publishers in nineteen congregations. In 1974 and
1975, the rates of increase in the numbers of Witnesses in Japan far
exceeded those of any other country with more than 10,000 publishers: in
1975, the next closest increases were registered in Chile (thirty per
cent), Italy (twenty-nine per cent) and Korea (twenty-eight per cent).
Since the 1950s, the Society has maintained about fifty missionarifigure than has been sustained in some countries,
and this even though a very high level of dedication has been elicited
from the movement's recruits in Japan. Whereas in many countries the
ratio of special, regular, and temporary pioneers to publishers has been
one to fifteen, in Japan that ratio has been as high as one to four.
Apparently, many Japanese publishers give up full-time work to take up
part-time jobs so that they can become pioneers. This is either an
indication of quality of commitment, or the relative ease with which
Japanese can live on a low income; or, of course, of both.
During the summer of 1975, it was possible for me to administer a
questionnaire, translated into Japanese, to a number of Jehovah's
Witnesses in Tokyo.12 The respondents do not represent a random sample
of all Witnesses in Japan, of course, nor even in metropolitan Tokyo,
particularly since the only convenient way to distribute the
questionnaire and to have some guarantee of a good return was, by
courtesy of the Elders, to undertake the distribution to Witnesses
actually present at congregational meetings.l3 This procedure did not
conform to the normal canons of social science survey research, nor was
it possible to ensure that every member of each congregation received a
questionnaire. In consequence, it is not possible to determine a precise
response rate, but 500 questionnaires were made available, and 377
returns were received from the sixteen congregations in which copies of
the questionnaire were distributed. The response rate is thus at least
75.4 %, and possibly higher, since it is quite possible that not every
questionnaire reached an individual who was eligible to use it. The
respondents were 113 males and 264 females, a sex ratio that confirms
the impressions of well-informed officials of the movement. The Branch
Servant himself believed that about seventy per cent of Witnesses in
Japan were women, and estimated that among thwere housewives. It was a commonplace among missionaries who had
long experience in Japan that it had always proved easier to win the
attention of women than men. The sex distribution of Witnesses in Japan
differs from that found in many other countries. Missionaries themselves
expressed the opinion that the imbalance arose from the fact that much
of the house-to-house witnessing work in Japan was undertaken in the
afternoons when women were more often at home than men, many of whom
worked long hours. Thus, women were much more likely to be exposed to to
the movement's proselytizing. If this is so, then the unbalance is of
course likely to be maintained, as women join the movement and become
publishers choosing the afternoons to do their house-to-house visiting,
and so meeting a disproportionately high number of other housewives.
There may of course be other factors to be considered in explanation,
such as the traditional role of women in respect to the tending of the
household shrine. But it must be emphasized that in general the beliefs
and practices of Jehovah's Witnesses do not constitute an expressive
affective orientation to the world of a kind that, in western society at
least, is thought to be more attractive to women than to men. Indeed,
the role performance demanded of a Witness, and the attitudes and
orientations that are encouraged, are pragmatic, unemotional, rational,
and matter-of-fact,14 and these dispositions-again generalizing from
western experience-are thought more fully to characterize male roles
than female.
The pattern of age distribution revealed by the responses to the
questionnaire is perhaps in need of less explanation. It
resulted in the following table:
Males Females Total
Under 20 years 7 5 12
20 - 29 years 50 66 116
103 140
40 - 49 years 8 49 57
50 - 59 years 9 21 30
60 - 69 years 2 12 14
over 70 years 0 6 6
Unstated 0 2 2
113 264 377
The concentration of men between twenty and forty years of age is very
marked. The relative fewness of people under twenty reflects the fact
the movement is relatively new in Japan. It is to be expected that a
large proportion of those under twenty who join the movement would
normally have become interested because parents or other close relatives
had joined. Some would normally have been " brought up " in what
Witnesses call " the Truth." In Japan, there has been relatively little
time for a high incidence of second-generation recruits, and an increase
in the proportion of teenagers in the movement is to be expected in the
future. Of the twelve young people among the respondents, five had no
relatives who were Witnesses.
The majority of those who have become Witnesses declare that they first
had their interest awakened by receiving a house-call from a publisher.
This technique of evangelism is, of course, not unique to the Witnesses
(it is practiced by the Mormons, and, although with the deployment of a
much smaller proportion of their personnel, by the Seventh-day
Aventists). There can be no doubt that to it is largely attributable
the success Of the movement in Japan. Respondents were asked to
indicate how their interest in the movement had first been aroused. Six
categories of response were provided, giving the following table:
How was your interest first awakened ?
Men Women Total
By a house-call 51 (45.1%)
By parents or relatives 33 (29.1%) 38 (14.3 %) 71 (18.8 %)
By a friend 4 ( 3.5%) 27 ( 2 %) 31 ( 8.1 %)
By an acquaintance 14 (12.3%) 14 ( 5.3%) 28 ( 7.4%)
At a meeting or an assembly 5 ( 4.4%) 6 ( 2.3 %) 11 (29 %)
By literature 2 ( 1.7%) 7 ( 2.6%) 9 (23 %)
Unspecified or in some other way 4 ( 3.5%) 3 ( 1.1 %) 7 (1.9%)
113 264 377
Thus, whereas forty-five per cent of the male respondents had
first had their interest aroused by a house-call, this was true for
sixty-four per cent of the women. The small proportion indicating
literature as the initial stimulus of their interest, suggests
that whatever dependence comes to be based on literature subsequently,
the human contact involved in the house-call, or in the incidental
witnessing of the friend, relative, or acquaintance, has been of
paramount importance in the movement's rapid development in Japan. The
house-call as a system of evangelism is adequately justified by these
figures, but it is possible that these figures somewhat understate the
importance of the more general disposition to witness to strangers,
since some of the respondents who indicated that their interest had
first been stimulated by an acquaintance meant, " by a Witness who
became acquainted with me," rather than " by an acquaintance
who became a Witness."
It becomes apparent, too, that the influence of friends who
become Witnesses is more significant with women than with men. On the
other hand it is clear that men are significantly susceptible to the
influence of their relatives. Of the thirty-three men who were first
interested by a parent or a relative, eleven, one third, and all of
them under thirty years of age, specifically said by a parent or a
gem over thirty years of age) said by
a wife. Of the thirty-eight women respondents in this category, only
nine said " Parent(s)." Of those who were interested first by
parents, eight said by " mother," but none said by "
father." Only one woman said that she had first been interested by
her husband. Thus with respect to recruitment, the lines of influence
within families more typically run from women to men than in reverse
direction. This finding acquires additional interest when it is
recalled that the Witnesses atteach great importance to the biblical
injunctions concerning male authority in the household and within their
own organization.
The role of women may also be evident with respect to the enrolment
of children. The following table reports the numbers of baptized
children of 15 years or over. Even though in such a table some cases are
certainly duplicated (being reported by both husband and wife) none the
less the overall patern is clear.
Witnesses reporting children (of at least 15 years who were Witnesses)
Men Women
Wife a Wife not Husband Husband
Age JW a JW Unstated a JW not a JW Unstated
30-9 yrs 0 0 0 1 2 0
40-9 yers 1 0 0 0 17 2
50-9 yrs 6 1 0 0 16 0
60-9 yrs 0 2 0 1 3 2
70+ yrs 0 0 0 0 0 0
It must be allowed, of course, that in some cases children may awaken
their parents' interest in the movement, but in general it seems
reasonable to suppose that in most cases, especially with younger
parents, the influence has opcally
from mothers) to children.
An indirect evidence of the extent to which women are more disposed to
join the movement before -and thereafter to influence - their husbands
or fiances is indicated in the responses given by married men whose
wives were Witnesses when asked whether they or their wives had been
baptized first.
Precedence in baptism of married men or their wives
Age Husband first Wife first Together Unstated
under 20 0 0 0 0
20-9 yrs 2 2 0 0
30-9 yrs 3 13 8 1
40-9 yrs 1 1 1 1
50-9 yrs 2 7 0 1
60-9 yrs 0 1 0 0
70+ 0 0 0 0
An unexplained disparity arises from the fact that in the entire sample
only seventeen married women and one widow reported that their husbands
were Witnesses, whereas forty-four men made this claim for their wives.
Either a significant proportion of non-respondents were women who were
the wives of Witnesses, or they were absent from the meeting at which
forms were distributed. If some married women failed to fill in the
questionnaire on the mistaken assumption that it was unnecessary to do
so because their husbands had done so, this would of course imply that
the disproportion between the sexes among Japanese Witnesses was even
greater than the sample reveals. Whatever the cause, this does not
impair the evidence of those who reported explicitly that their spouses
were not Witnesses. This was reported by 142 married women, by ten
divorced women, and by ten windows: six left this question unanswered.
Thus, of the total of women in the sample who were actually married at
the time of the research (that is excluding widows and per cent had husbands who were not Witnesses.
Even if the doubtful tactic were followed of allowing for failed
responses, by adding to the 17 women actually married at the time a
further 27 spouses claimed by the married men, the proportion would
still be 76 per cent. Although this is a hypothetical finding, it gives
some indication of the minimal magnitude of this group.
The number of married women not sharing their rather intense religious
involvement with their spouses invites enquiry into the extent to which
Jehovah's Witnesses in Japan enjoy the support for their religious
commitment of other relatives. A surprisingly high proportion of the
respondents turned out to be unmarried people, no less than 62 men and
69 women were single, together representing 34.8 per cent of the entire
sample. Of all the males in the sample, 53 per cent had never been
married, and of the women 26.1 per cent. That the movement is successful
in winning people who are converted without the reinforcing effects of
the influence of already-committed kinsfolk is revealed by the fact that
of these (mainly young) unmarried people, 21 of the 62 men explicitly
stated that they had no relatives of any kind who were Jehovah's
Witnesses, and the same was asserted by 21 of the 69 unmarried women. A
significant proportion of both men and women failed to answer this
question explicitly, but since opportunity was available to check
several categories of kinsfolk it seems likely that a far higher
proportion were in fact without relatives in the movement. The figures
were:
Unmarried without relatives who were Jehovah's Witnesses
Women Men
Age No No
Relatives Relatives Unstated Relatives Relatives Unstated
Under 20 2 4 1 1 2 2
20-9 yrs 18 9 18 30-9 yrs 1 2 6 8 3 2
40-9 yrs 0 0 1 2 1 5
50-9 yrs 0 0 0 0 0 1
60-9 yrs 0 0 0 0 0 1
70+ 0 0 0 0 0 0
21 15 26 21 24 26
The finding for unmarried persons is reinforced when the whole sample
is examined. Asked about relatives, 248 of 377 respondents made
explicit reply to this question. (We again leave aside those who left
this question blank, even though we may surmise that many did so
because they had nothing to report about relatives ) . Of these 248,
142 reported that, (spouses and children apart) they had no relatives
in the movement. Almost exactly half of these were married people whose
partners were not Jehovah's Witnesses.
The following table presents the position:
Jehovah's Witnesses without relatives in the Movement (except
spouses and children)
Men Women Total
Unmarried persons 21 21 42
Widowed (partner had been a JW) 1 0 1
Widowed (partner had not been a JW) 0 2 2
Divorced (partner had not been a JW) 0 4 4
Married (partner a JW) 19 4 21
Married (partner not a JW) 4 66 70
45 97 142
Although this paper is primarily concerned with kinship, it is perhaps
important also to report on the occupations of Tokyo Jehovah's
Witnesses, less because of any new light which these data throw on
social class than for the significance that they may have in
indicating occupational affinities and sectarian allegiance. The
following lists ecupations of Tokyo Jehovah's Witnesses Men Women Total
Clerical and Sales 37 38 75
Drivers, Storemen, Milk delivery etc. 8 2 10
Factory workers 8 0 8
Teachers 3 6 9
Dentists, Pharmacists 2 0 2
Designers and dressmakers 5 7 12
Nurses and dental assistants 0 7 7
Engineers 4 0 4
Computers and research 2 1 3
Builders 2 0 2
Printers 3 0 3
Company directors, business 4 3 7
Students 11 4 15
Miscellaneous un-skilled 3 4 7
Housewives 0 162 162
Unemployed 1 11 12
Unstated 9 8 17
Pioneers 1 1 2
That almost 43 per cent of the entire sample, and over 61 per
cent of the women should be housewives is not surprising in view of
what has already been established. It is also possible that some of the
women describing themselves as " unemployed " might in fact
be housewives. The predominance of clerical workers is also marked, and
beyond this, it is apparent that a work in
which personal contacts are likely to be high: only a small proportion
are engaged in work in which the primary involvement is with equipment.
There is, however, another influence on employment among Jehovah's
Witnesses, and this is the extent to which becoming a Witness may
itself affect the individual's decision to give up existing work in
order to find employment more congenial for a life of active service
for the movement. In western countries, it is well known that Jehovah's
Witnesses, and sectarians of some other persuasions, often give up jobs
that demand membership in trades unions for work - in which trades
union membership is not required. In Japan, a rather different case
which is certainly known among Witnesses everywhere, is perhaps
particularly common-the decision to seek more congenial employment by
those who wish to serve as pioneers, and who, with that object in mind,
seek part-time work. Such work is more likely to be available in
service industries, some clerical work, and in jobs that are not
dictated by shift systems or the uniform demands of conveyor belts. A
high proportion of Japanese Witnesses undertake pioneer service, and
this was reflected in the respondents to the questionnaire. The
following table records their numbers and ages.
Pioneers by sex and age
Age Men Women
(all gainfully occupied) (ganifully occupied) Housewives
under 20 6 2 0
20-9 yrs 20 18 0
30-9 yrs 3 20 2
40-9 yrs 0 6 1
50-9 yrs 1 1 2
60-9 yrs 0 0
70+ 0 0 1
Unstated 30 47 7
Many of the respondents were in part-time work, no doubt to facilitate
their pioneering, and a number were in manual or menial work (office
cleaning and unskilled work such as key punching), even though their
educational background suggested that they might be qualified for
higher skilled and better-paid work. Most of the respondents had also
avoided involvement in trades unions, and only six in the whole sample
declared themselves to be trades union members.
The sacrifice of career prospects that is made by some who become
Jehovah's Witnesses may be less difficult than the prospect of the
severance of kinship relations. The questionnaire enquiry was augmented
in some twenty-five cases by extended interviews with individual
publishers, and something of the range, if not of the extent, of the
ramifications of becoming a Witness was discovered by this means.
There is perhaps a more general tolerance for religious differences in
Japan than in western countries: the connotations of sectarian
exclusiveness are less apparent in Japan than in the West. Many people
in the past engaged in both Buddhist and Shinto rites, and adopted a
syncretistic attitude to religious belief and practice. Such attitudes
probably continued to be manifested among Japanese Christians at least
with respect to the major religious traditions, if not towards groupsas
Jehovah's Witnesses.l5 The Witnesses in Japan acquired from the
Society's literature a much more exclusive attitude respecting their
religion, but some moderation of the strength of their evangelistic
zeal must have become normal in the large number of households of mixed
faith that the survey revealed. No doubt in many cases the general
indifference to religion of Japanese men mitigated the tee many women who were Witnesses without support from
husband or relatives.
Family reactions to members who became Witnesses varied
expectably from mild remonstrance to discord that in some cases led to
separation. Thus one woman had nothing worse to endure than the
repeated banter of her sister who told her that she was getting black
in the face through all her out-of-doors publishing-an allusion to the
fact that she became sun-tanned, a condition not well-regarded by many
Japanese. In other cases, parents were said to have become anxious when
a young convert decided to give up his regular job in order to take up
part-time work in combination with which he could devote more of his
time to pioneering, and several respondents reported family quarrels on
this subject. A typical case was that of a 20-year-old man who had
accepted a Bible study from a Witness because he thought it would help
him with his study of English Literature at Meiji Gakuin University
where he was a second year undergraduate at that time. Within a short
time he had become convinced of the truth of the Watch Tower message
and he abandoned his university course in order to engage in
pioneering. Subsequently, he withdrew from his parents' home because of
their sustained disagreement about his decision, and although he
continued to see former friends, he now did so only to give them
opportunity to hear " the Truth."
The course of events is not always of this kind, however:
becoming a Jehovah's Witness is not necessarily, or even regularly, a
cause of family dissension in Japan. Thus a single electrician of 22,
who had had some further training in electrical engineering after
leaving high school, reported as follows: " When I had my first
contact with Jehovah's Witnesses, I was not living with my own people.
I was living nearby, and not at home. I and my family were not in a
peaceful relation. I often raised my fist against my parents. After I
nciples, I tried to apply them to myself
and to be more conciliatory towards my parents. That is why the
relation has improved, although my parents do not accept the Truth. I
am now on better terms with them, and although I am not yet living at
home, I now plan to do so."
A young chef, who was the eldest son, and therefore a
prospective head of a family that still maintained zealous ancestor
worship, had given up his work on becoming a Witness to take up
part-time employment as a clerk and to undertake pioneering in his
spare time. His parents " thought I was mad," but gradually
they became somewhat reconciled to his change, and although they
themselves continued to practice their traditional religion, they had
now offered to allow him to use their own home in Aomori prefecture for
Bible-study meetings. A similar accommodation, exemplifying the less
exclusivistic attitude to religion in Japan, and one that might be
thought strange in a more explicitly Christian context, and indeed
among Witnesses in any other country, was recounted by a prosperous
factory owner who had become one of Jehovah's Witnesses. To ensure the
prosperity of the business it had been his practice each year to pray
together with his employees at the Shinto shrine of the fox that was
installed in his factory. When he became a Witness he discontinued this
practice, much to the disquiet of his employees, some of whom asserted
that the business must surely collapse and that he would be punished.
He explained to them that he was now asking Jehovah to watch over the
business: he returned the fox to the temple-together with a handsome
donation.
Among the questions asked of those respondents were interviewed
were two that sought to elicit the appeal made by the movement and the
felt sense of benefit by those who belonged. The questions were: "
What was it, apart from the teachings themselves, that first attracted
you to the Witnesses ? &qncipal
blessings that you have experienced since you became one of Jehovah's
Witnesses ?."
Although the replies differ considerably, certain underlying
themes are apparent, and in particular the extent to which the movement
serves as a family surrogate and a supportative community. Replies from
people of both sexes and different ages are given below.
Sex Age Question Response
F 29 Attraction " They had natural. inner beauty. naturalness and happiness in the meeting."
Blessing " I gained hope; confidence about the future.
F 57 Attraction " The kindness of the Witnesses."
Blessing " The opportunity to do pioneer service - the activity.""
F 37 Attraction " The lack of any smell of religious formalism and the absence of show."
Blessing " The service work is satisfying."
M 36 Attraction " The warmth of the Witnesses attracted me, their neatness, their desire to help and the good relation, ships among them.
Blessing " Certainty about the future and peace of mind."
M 68 attraction " I led a bad life, lying and cheating in business: the Witnesses had what I was seeking: they were strange and wonderful."
Blessing " I no longer seek money, power, or selfish ends."
M 21 Attraction " The attitude and personality of the publisher who first talked to me."
Blessing " They have true friendship: there is nothing hidden among Jehovah's Witnesses, even though it seems strict and severe. There is security and peace of mind,
and release from the desire f, and the anxiety of seeking them."
M 29 Attraction " The quality in the congregation.
Blessing " I now feel that God is very close to me: before I did not know if there was a God. Before I did not reach the goals I set myself: now I fed a power behind me to reach the goals I set.'
M 33 Attraction " I was surprised to find such meek people."
Blessing " My personality has been improved: before I was violent and had no concern for my family's welfare. I have also been freed from traditional obligations."
M 18 Attraction " The meeting was family-like. There were no idols or crosses. The people were calm, cheerful, and peaceful."
Blessing " The joy of temporary pioneer service."
M 18 Attraction " I was impressed by the polite speech of the Wit nesses. When 1 attended the 1973 Assembly, 1 was impressed by the unity of the organization: 1 thought
I was observing well trained soldiers. '
Blessing " I used to stutter, but by training in the Theocratic Ministry School I overcame it. 1 had eye trouble but I prayed to God and recovered."
F 37 Attraction " The people were loving and kind; and they enjoyed the meeting, and they sincerely tried to apply Bible principles in their lives."
Blessing " I now have hope, and feelings of appreciation about God, and I am leading a brighter life and a more cheerful."
F 43 Attraction itude of the Witnesses: they are very kind and easy to get acquainted with."
Blessing " When my child had an operation I couldn't have coped without Jehovah and the kindness of the Witnesses."
F 35 Attraction " When the Witnesses first called, my second baby had just been born, and they said that the Bible spoke of the training of children. I felt that I could get from the Bible the right way to bring up my children."
Blessing " Three things: I have overcome my own shyness; I can now handle my household chores; my relation with my husband is closer."
F 23 Attraction " I was moved by the fact that the young and the old could talk and take part, and by how friendly they were. I noticed he difference between the brothers I met and the people with whom I worked in the factory.'
Blessing " I could never find contentment, but now I find it whenever I come to the meetings or conduct home visits. I am much happier even though I am materially much worse off."
F 28 Attraction " The love and warmth among Jehovah's Witnesses."
Blessing " I no longer have such strong differences of opinion with my husband."
F 23 Attraction " I didn't understand the first meeting I came to. I
didn't know anything about the Bible, but I
was impressed by the kindness of the people. The
impression I had was that these were people that I should like to
know. My interest in at it
was an ancient book."
Blessing "Jehovah is always caring for you, and having a relationship to him is a positive joy.
We can now settle family problems by Bible principles."
The frequency with which those interviewed, including some whose
family and relatives were not Witnesses, referred to the significance of
adherence for their own kinship relationships indicates, perhaps, their
satisfaction in finding a model for personal comportment and
interpersonal relationships that was learned and experienced in the
sect, and then applied to their own family life. If those interviewed
were at all typical, then it appears that many Witnesses in Japan had
been discontented in their family and kinship relations, and uncertain
about their own kinship behaviour. The strains upon, and the
transformation of, the Japanese family system following
industrialization and urbanization had been closely associated with the
decay of Japanese traditional religion.16 The same
developments had rendered received wisdom about family life and
individual comportment inapplicable and out-moded. The assumptions to be
made about kinship, and the principles involved in kinship relations,
were no longer effectively transmitted and learned within the family
itself. But they could now be learned from a fraternal and egalitarian
sectarian community that not only functioned as an extended-family
surrogate, but that self-consciously prescribed principles for a new
group life in the congregation, for a new pattern of family
relationships in the home, and which, beyond this, offered the prospect
that these patterns, already in operation in congregations throughout
the world, would, in the near future, become universal. Not only were
these principles clear, authoritative, ancient yet modern, but they were
also practical, direct, and simple, and they were offered without the
escension so common in other Christian
denominations. What was to be learned in the family-surrogate community
was to be applied to the family itself. In some respects, a new basis of
family organization, learned outside the family, was now available. A
second significant theme evident in the material elicited in the
interviews, was the new found sense of release from the desire for
material possessions. On the basis of as yet unpublished material
gathered by the author for other countries, the strength of this concern
may be peculiarly significant for Witnesses in Japan. Release from
desire is a Buddhist preoccupation, and one that had become part of the
secular cultural tradition of Japan before that country was overtaken by
modern industrialism. Its rediscovery in a practical, directive. and
active religion has clearly been important for many Japanese Witnesses.
The exceptionally high proportion of Witnesses who become pioneers in
Japan, abandoning good jobs for part-time and less wellpaid work, and of
others who give up occupations that compromise, even in only small
measure, their faith, may be a tribute not only to the strength of the
commitment that the movement elicits-although it is certainly that-but
also the consequence of the re-assertion in Watch Tower teaching of a
much older cultural disposition. Uniform as is the movement's message
throughout the world, it is to background factors such as this that we
must turn if we are to explain differences in the strength of commitment
and other cross-cultural variables.
The reinforcement of kinship bonds: the operation of a wider community
functioning almost as an extended clan: and the involvement in a pattern
of rationally-organized religious activity that manifests so little (and
so much less than does any other form of western Christianity) the
cultural styles of the western religious tradition - are aspects of
Watch Tower teaching that appear to be of cardinal importance in the
explanation of the success of
1The Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890 not only
established the centrality of patriotism in religion, but set out the
values and obligations of the familial system. It was learned in school
and recited at special ceremonies. The sentiments that it expressed were
well summarized by a former Minister of Education when he wrote, "
It must be very difficult for Western nations to realise our feelings
towards our Emperor. The moral teaching - is very largely based upon the
almost religious attitude towards the Emperor, and it is effective
because the moral instruction in Japan Is based upon something very
similar to what you would call in England a religious sanction. Our
moral teaching is entirely secular, in that it has no connection with
Buddhism or Christianity, or any other system of religion, but reverence
for the Imperial House is something religious in itself. Our reverence
for ancestors is something religious surely. As to the reverence for a
man's own ancestors, I do not know whether you could call it
religious... For example; if you will excuse a personal instance, the
last thing I did before leaving Japan was to go to my fathers tomb and
say good-bye. Also when I had time a few years ago I went round to the
tombs of my various ancestors... and paid my respects. I do not think I
am religious In the sense of believing in any dogma; but I believe that
the spirit of ancestors is something that is alive in us... " Baron
Kikuchi " The Spirit of Japanese Education with special reference
to Methods of Moral Instruction and Training in different grades of
schools," Vol. 11, Foreign and Colonial; London: Longmans, Green
and Co., 1908.
2 On the continuity of shamanistic traditions in some of the new
religious, see Carmen BLACKER, The Catalpa Bow: A Study of
Shamanistic Practices in Japan, London: Allen and Unwin. 1975,
pp. 128-38.
3 This is the case with Konko-kyo as revealed h the movement's leaders.
4 On this subject, see Robert J. SMITH, Ancestor Worship in
Japan, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974.
5 See Tadashl FUKUTAKE Japanese Society Today, Tokyo:University
Press, 1974, pp. 4, 6, 94-5.
6 For an exposition of this thesis, see H. NEILL MCFARLAND, Rush Hour
of the Gods, New York: Macmillan, 1967, pp. 224, 234-6.
7 See FUKUTAKE, op.cit., p. 99.
8 FUKUTAKE, op.cit.. p. 43.
9 Drummond considers that the highest reliable figure for early Catholic
converts in Japan is 300,000 in 1614, but acknowledges that another
estimate claimed 750,000 in 1605. The latter figure exceeds that of the
number of Christians in contemporary Japan. and represents a much higher
proportion of the then much smaller total population. See R.H. DRUMMOND,
A History of Christianity in laPan, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1971,
pp. 57-8.
10 On Uchimura Kanzo, see Grlo CALDAROLA,, Christianity - Japanese Way,
forthcoming.
11 The foregoing and following paragraphs depend on The Yearbook of
Jehovah's Witnesses, 1973, Brooklyn, N.Y.: Watch Tower Bible and
Tract Society, 1974, and on conversations with Mr. Isamu Sugiura of the
Tokyo Branch of the Watch Tower Society.
12 The work was facilitated by a grant in aid from the Nuffield
Foundation The questionaire and the replies were translated under the
directions of Professor Kei'ichi Yanagawa of the University of Tokyo and
with the assistance of Mr. N. Inoue. to both of whom my gratitude is
herewith expressed. I should also like to record my gratitude to the
Japan Society, the officers of which very kindly and unexpectedly
invited me to spend a period studying the new religions of Japan. It was
on the occasion of that visit that I had the opportunity to undertake
the research that has resulted in this paper.
14 See comments on these facets of the movement by James A. Beckford, "
The Watch Tower movement: A Rational Organization," paper presented to a
meeting of the University association for the Sociology of Religion,
London, 1972; idem., " Organization, Ideology and recruitment: The
Structure of the Watch Tower Movement," Sociological Review. 23, 4
(November, 1975), pp. 893-99; and B.R. WILSON, ' American Religion: its
impact on Britain," in A.J.N. DEN HOLLANDER (Editor), Contagious
Conflict: The Impact of American Dissent on European Life, Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1973. pp. 233~63.
15 Of the total sample of 377, fifty had reported that their previous
religion was Christian, but only eight of these said that they had been
devout, and fifteen stated that they had lapsed before learning about
Jehovah's Witnesses. Seventy-six respondents reported their previous
religion as Buddhism or Shinto (of various sects). The great majority of
respondents reported that they had no previous religion.
16 On this, see Kiyomi MORIOKA, Religion in Changing Japanese Socielg,
Tokyo: University of Tokyo Pre - , 1975; and Iwao MUNAICATA, ·.
Ambivalent Effects of Modernization on Traditional Folk Religion,'
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 3, 2.3, (June-September,
1976), pp. 99-126.