Catholic Church in Japan

Christian missionaries arrived with Francis Xavier and the Jesuits in the 1540s and briefly flourished, with over 100,000 converts, including many daimyōs in Kyushu. It soon met resistance from the highest office holders of Japan. Emperor Ōgimachi issued edicts to ban Catholicism in 1565 and 1568, but to little effect. Beginning in 1587, with imperial regent Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ban on Jesuit missionaries, Christianity was repressed as a threat to national unity. After the Tokugawa shogunate banned Christianity in 1620 it ceased to exist publicly. Many Catholics went underground, becoming , while others died. Only after the Meiji Restoration was Christianity re-established in Japan. File:4223-20080119-0633UTC--nazareth-church-of-the-annunciation-japanese-madonna.jpg|Japanese mosaic of Madonna and Child, in the Church of the Annunciation, Nazareth (a gift from Japanese Catholics to the church) File:Melaka-St-Paul-Dutch-graves-2185.jpg|Gravestone (second from the left), in Malacca's St. Paul's Church, of Peter Martinez consecrated as the second bishop of Japan in Goa, 1595 and arrived in Nagasaki, 1596. He left in 1597 following the deaths of the 26 Martyrs of Japan. Died en route to Goa in February 1598. ==Organisation==

in Tokyo, which serves as the see of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Tokyo , Tokyo is one Catholic Church in Japan that provides English Mass Governance The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan is the Japanese episcopal conference, which serves as the main decision-making body of the Church in Japan. The current President of the CBCJ is Isao Kikuchi. The Catholic Church in Japan is divided into three ecclesiastical provinces with a total of 15 dioceses, three of which are metropolitan archdioceses. Japan has no military ordinariate compared with its neighbour South Korea. However, it does share a personal ordinariate with two other countries, Australia and the Philippines. == Ecclesiastical territories ==

The Catholic Church in Japan is organised into 15 dioceses, 3 of which are classified as metropolitan dioceses that head each of the 3 ecclesiastical provinces in the country. Dioceses by region Ecclesiastical Province of Nagasaki • Metropolitan Archdiocese of Nagasaki • Diocese of Fukuoka • Diocese of Kagoshima • Diocese of Naha • Diocese of Oita Ecclesiastical Province of Osaka • Metropolitan Archdiocese of Osaka-Takamatsu • Diocese of Hiroshima • Diocese of Kyoto • Diocese of Nagoya (Nagasaki) Ecclesiastical Province of Tokyo • Metropolitan Archdiocese of Tokyo • Diocese of Niigata • Diocese of Saitama • Diocese of Sapporo • Diocese of Sendai • Diocese of Yokohama Personal Ordinariate • Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross == Catholic education in Japan ==

The Catholic Church is involved in religious education in Japan, providing learning opportunities to both Catholic and non-Catholic students. According to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan, Japan has a total of 828 Catholic educational institutions. The Church operates different types of schools, which can be seen below: Campus in Tokyo, Japan. The Jesuit Sophia University in Chiyoda, Tokyo is listed in the Times Higher Education and QS Global University rankings, and is considered one of the top private universities in Japan. It is one of 37 universities selected by the Japanese Government to participate in the Top Global University Project and receive financial assistance to boost globalisation in Japan and foster research. Other Catholic universities in Japan include Nanzan University (Nagoya, Aichi) and the Elisabeth University of Music (Hiroshima, Hiroshima). == Notable Japanese Roman Catholic sisters and priests ==

Okamura Fuku, nun and co-founder of the Missionary Sisters of St. John the Evangelist. Magdalene of Nagasaki, tertiary of the Order of Augustinian Recollects. Domingos Chohachi Nakamura, missionary and priest. Shigeto Oshida, Dominican priest. Takako Takahashi, author and nun. Kazuko Watanabe, nun, educator, and writer. == Martyrs and canonised saints ==

, Germany. Founded in 1986, the Committee for Promoting Canonisation, which is directly affiliated with the Standing Committee of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan, is responsible for promoting Japan's canonisation efforts and recognition of its martyrs. Its main objectives are to support local dioceses in promoting cases for canonisation, support canonisation promoted by the Conference, and promotion devotions to Japanese Catholic martyrs. All Catholic martyrs in Japan, both native Japanese and foreign missionaries, were persecuted and killed during the Sakoku period of Japanese isolationism. Some of the groups of martyrs and individual martyrs were later canonised and venerated as saints in the Church's liturgical calendar. Canonised saints • Twenty-Six Martyrs of Japan (also called St Paul Miki and Companions) • Paul Miki (one of the Twenty-Six Martyrs) • Sixteen Martyrs of Japan Martyrs == Papal visits ==

• Pope John Paul II (1981) became the first pontiff to visit Japan and visited the atomic bomb memorial sites in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. • Pope Francis (November 2019) was the first pontiff to visit Japan in decades. He visited the then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Emperor Naruhito at the Tokyo Imperial Palace, Sophia University, and the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park. ==See also==