The evangelization of Japan started in 1549 with the arrival of
Saint Francis Xavier and went on until 1587, when
Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued an edict forbidding Christianity and ordering all missionaries to leave Japan. In the following years of persecution, also in
Edo (now Tokyo), there were cases of martyrdom in 1612 and 1623. After the “seclusion period”, the first missionaries of the
Paris Foreign Missions Society arrived in Japan in 1858, and were stationed in the three ports of
Nagasaki,
Yokohama and
Hakodate. On 1 May 1846,
Vicariate Apostolic of Japan was erected. On 22 May 1876, the
vicariate apostolic was divided in two: the
Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Japan, with its center in Nagasaki, and the
Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Japan, with its center in Tokyo. ==List of ordinaries==