Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Tokyo (Fides Service) - For the first time the number of Catholics in Japan has reached and overtaken the one million mark. According to information in a handbook issued by the Migrant Commission of the Japanese Bishops’ Conference, believers in Christ in the land of the rising sun have increased also thanks to migration. In fact growing numbers of Catholics from other countries come to Japan in search of work. The local Church is convinced that immigration can be a resource for evangelisation.
In a handbook sent to Fides “The Catholic Church in Japan. A Church which lives with the Japanese and foreigners”, the Commission, after a census in 2003, says that Japanese Catholics are 449,925 units, foreign resident Catholics are 565,712, making a total 1,015,637 Catholics.
However, while the number of Japanese Catholics is taken from parish baptism registers, the number of non Japanese Catholics is an estimate which considers only official figures on registered emigrants but not those with regard to underground immigration.
According to the handbook from 1999 to 2003 the number of Japanese Catholics remained stable, whereas the number of non Japanese Catholics increased by about 100,000, mostly from the following countries: Brazil 235,000; Philippines 152,000; Korea 55,000; Peru 47,000. Many immigrants from Brazil and Peru are descendants of former Japanese emigrants to South America. More in detail with regard to the individual dioceses, according to the Bishops’ handbook by welcoming 120,000 immigrants Yokohama has become the diocese with the highest number of faithful in the country. It also shows that non Japanese Catholics take an active part in parish life and as members of Catholic associations and movements, and that Mass is celebrated in Japanese, English and Spanish.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 10/05/2005 Righe: 31 Parole: 320)
