ASIA/JAPAN - The Catholic Community in Japan takes small steps forward: Bishops’ Conference statistics

Tokyo (Agenzia Fides) - The Catholic Church in the Land of the Rising Sun continues her journey of day to day living in pastoral work and initiatives for evangelisation slowly growing in numbers and in faith. This emerged from a report issued by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan which sets the total figure of Catholics in Japan, clergy and faithful, at the figure of 45,000 at the end of 2006. During 2006 there were 7,193 baptisms, (3,692 adults and 3,501 children, and another 5,400 catechumens are preparing for baptism. The report says that about 60% of Japanese Catholics are women according to parish registers. The figures given do no include Catholic foreign citizens, about 565,000.
The Archdiocese of Tokyo still has the largest Catholic community (95.362), followed by Nagasaki (65.415), Osaka (55.441) and Yokohama (54.430). At the end of 2006 the local Church had 1,553 priests (926 Japanese and 627 missionaries), 38 deacons, 138 seminarians and 58 young people involved in propaedeutic activity at a Seminary. There are 6.060 women religious (372 foreigners), 201 Brothers (147 local, 54 foreigners).
An encouraging number of Catholic marriages are registered every year: 2006 there were 3.130 including 1.450 mixed marriage of a Catholic and a member of another religion, but in many cases the non Catholic is under instruction.
Japan has 360 missionaries, priests, religious and lay persons, in various parts of the world. This figure reveals the missionary vitality of the small Catholic community (450,000 in a population of 127 million).
The Gospel was first carried to Japan by Saint Francis Xavier in the 16th century. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 26/7/2007 righe 25 parole 257)