Is the LDS a big presence in Japan? I am assuming they have a big presence since there is a LDS Temple there. So are they growing there and it would be a good area to get tithing money which the LDS is obsessed with. Thanks

No they are not a big presence there. Ask anyone who has served a mission to Japan. Fewer than 1 in a thousand Japanese are LDS. And of those, most are inactive.

There are more than twice as many ex-mormons in Japan as mormons.

Units (wards plus branches) have been declining steadily in recent years-- 317 in 2000, 314, in 2002, 309 in 2004, 308 in 2006, 294 in 2008.

http://cumorah.com/index.php?target=main&wid=109

The above poster is correct that fewer than one in a thousand Japanese are LDS. There are approximately 30,000 LDS in a country of 130 million. That is fewer than one in a thousand.

yeah, not much presence. In Yokohama and Tokyo a little more, though they are getting a temple in Sapporo soon. don't know why. The numbers tend to be old people and then families born into the church with their kids. I don't think there are that many new members. Then there is the whole atrocities that were done in the 80's and still going on with the english classes. They are all free and done by the missionaries and that is pretty much an instant draw, but then they always host it in a church and then have a stupid message at the end.

The number is shrinking.
For me, being a member was a such a burden, but I did it because I wanted a huge blessing. Many active members think that way,too, even now.

What are the burdens?
1)Tithing!(it is very expensive to live in Tokyo)People become financially successful not because they pay to the church but their hard works and special talents which they worked hard to develop.

2)Attending so many useless meetings everyday(Mon:FHE,Tue:Temple,Wed:VT or HM,Thu:Home making/youth activity/other meeting held at church,Fri:helping missionary discussion/baptism/church activity/conference), Sun:all day church (8 am to 8 pm & at least 1 hour for each way as a commuting time),and the early morning seminary and Institute. My friend was a seminary teacher and said that was not worth it at all.

3)So much pressure on marriage and full-time mission as if there are anything else that important. People give up good careers, schools, and their personal goals to show a complete salute to the prophet. But they soon find there aren't any result and leave the church.

4)Word of Wisdom.
Drinking green tea is a traditional custom in Japan. It is very rude to decline tea when the host tries his/her very best to show you hospitality. The Mormon have to explain each time(many times a day!)at every occasion(in a company too!)why they don't drink. It is Ok for the foreigners to decline but not the natives. I know some active Mormons died from cancer at relatively young age. Perhaps they should have sipped some teas.

5)Students do not have enough time to study.
There are just too many meetings that students do not have enough time, unless the one is very smart and that one can memorize and retain information very easily. The church leaders tell us the church callings and meeting are more important than the school works.

6)The leaders constantly press us to work even harder to bring in more investigators, do more volunteer works in a community,attend temple more often, do VT and HT 100 %,attend all the meeting to support the church and bro. and sis., and do everything else perfectly!! Not possible!

7)Everything! They ask us to give the church everything!
But the blessings they promise are in the heaven. We just need to wait or we haven't work hard enough so there are no blessings.

Because of all these burdens, in addition to some weird doctrines(racism, plural marriage, Mormon history,location of the Garden of Eden, origin of American Indians), they quit church.
It is NOT growing.
I wish the church will give me some refund. Many companies would give me,if I am not satisfied with their products. Why not church?

The burdens of becoming LDS in Japan were huge. I was always amazed whenever I saw members take on all the burdens of being LDS. It took up any possible free time they had, took their money, isolated them from the culture, etc.

It is no wonder that most new baptized members would disappear after a few weeks.

Yuko, you had mentioned food storage on another thread, and I think it is pointless. I don't see the point of food storage in a calamity such as what happened in Japan. Houses were washed away, buildings gone, city blocks burned down. Do you think that the food storage would remain in place? It would burn, wash away, just like everything else.

This is a dumb practice in the church, that is meaningless and meant to keep people busy, and poor, and guilty for not following every single commandment/demand.

I do not deny that it would help in such cases as a person loosing their job, and at least you could eat for some time. But it would never help in the case of a true disaster. If building crumble, who is going to dig for food storage? What about contamination? If things burn, they burn, there is nothing left, if food storage is carried out to sea, what have you accomplish by taking your hard earned money and buy things that are washed away?

I always told my mother that food storage is a completely meaningless and stupid practice in mormonisn. One of many.

On another thought, I really hope you have heard from your family. There are many people praying for the Japanese right now, and many people helping. Hope you hear good news soon.