The Apostolic Delegation set up by Pope Benedict XV in Tokyo became an Internunciature when the San Francisco Peace Treaty took effect and full diplomatic relations with the Vatican were established on 28 April, 1952. The Tokyo post has been held by Pietro Cardinal Fumasoni-Biondi, 1919-21, Archbishop Mario Giardini, 1922-31, Edward Cardinal Mooney, 1931-33, Archbishop Paolo Marella, 1933-49, Archbishop Maximillian de Furstenberg, 1949-
Nationalistic tendencies, representing Christianity as a “foreign” religion, created psychological obstacles before the war, and also imposed a State-approved structure on the Church. Most Catholic missionaries stayed on, the “enemy aliens” passing the war years in concentration camps. Police surveillance hampered mission work, particularly in country areas. Some Japanese clergy were drafted and others used as “liaison” agents in occupied territories. Air attacks caused casualties among clergy and laity (especially the atom bombing at Nagasaki), 59 churches were destroyed, 7 damaged, and many convents, schools, etc., affected.
After 1945 came a great influx of missionaries and expansion of facilities, the principle of entrusting work in a single ecclesiastical province to one religious society being abandoned. Since the mission was reopened in the mid-nineteenth century, the Paris Foreign Mission Society had carried the burden of evangelization. In 1904, Spanish Dominicans from Manila took charge of Shikoku. The Society of the Divine Word took over Niigata in 1912 and Nagoya in 1922. Franciscan Fathers of the Fulda province were given Sapporo. German Jesuits, excluded from India in the First World War, were assigned Hiroshima in 1923. Nagasaki became in March, 1927, the first diocese completely staffed by Japanese clergy, with Pius XI personally consecrating the first Japanese bishop, Januarius K. Hayasaka. The Paris Foreign Mission withdrew to Fukuoka, and Kagoshima (including Okinawa) was entrusted to Canadian Franciscans; but the prewar tension necessitated their reassignment to Urawa in 1939. Canadian Dominicans took over the Diocese of Hakodate in 1927, the seat being moved to Sendai in 1936. Salesians started work in Miyazaki in 1918, and it became a prefecture apostolic in 1935. Maryknoll Fathers arrived in 1937, with Msgr. Patrick Bvrne as first Prefect Apostolic of Kyoto. That same year, the Archdiocese of Tokyo was ceded to the Japanese clergy under Archbishop Peter T. Doi, the Paris Foreign Mission Society concentrating on the newly established Diocese of Yokohama,
After the Communist conquest of China, religious institutions of men in Japan rose to 36 and numbered 57 in 1957, those of women to 66, and numbered 70 in 1955. Secular priests from Australia, the United States, Belgium, Hungary, and Spain have been or are working in Nagasaki and Yokohama, and chaplains of the Occupation forces have given inestimable help. Vocations are remarkably high, 1.3 priests (secular and regular) and 11 nuns per 1,000 of Catholic population, with ten wholly Japanese congregations of women. Two. regional seminaries, Tokvo (theological faculty of the Jesuit Sophia University) and Fukuoka (Sulpicians), train clerical students, as do 12seminaries of religious institutions and 12diocesan minor seminaries. There are also language schools for new missionaries.
. The spiritual void after defeat and the collapse of nationalism created a favorable situation, but the masses remain dominated by the struggle for daily bread and the craving for pleasure. While they feel no need of religion or a rational philosophy of life, many students and intelligentsia are attracted by communism. The Church is more widely. known, but largely negatively as opposing communism and birth control, her dogma and moral and social teachings being. ignored.
There was a temporary increase in converts but no revolutionary change in mission methods. Individual contacts through schools, hospitals, and social or charitable work form the main approach. Attempts at mass conversions had only limited success. A promising start has been made, especially by the Scheut Fathers, in neighborhood associations of Christians under a block leader named by the priest. They gather monthly for prayer, bible reading, explanation of catechism, and reports. The leader maintains liaison with the priest, visits the sick, helps arrange burials, collects church contributions. All block leaders meet monthly. Four months form an action period with a scheduled program. The method is said to have increased the number of catechumens fourfold.
Catholic schools, though not used as instruments of proselytism, give important help. The first for girls was opened in 1872 and for boys in 1888. The first Catholic university was recognized in 1913, but for long there were few Catholic schools and they experienced difficult times during the prewar tension. Since the war, they have expanded greatly. The education office of the National Catholic Committee, set up by the hierarchy after the war, publishes school books, provides services for teachers, and keeps contact with Catholic teachers in other schools. Schools are united in the Catholic Educational Association, teachers in the Catholic Teachers Association, and students in the Catholic Students Association. Catholic study clubs or Newman clubs exist in many public and private universities.
Catholic institutions help indirectly in mission work. There are 14 hospitals, 2 leprosaria, 26 dispensaries, 9 sanitaria, 68 nurseries, 38 orphanages, 12 dormitories, 8 homes for the aged, 14 baby homes, 3 Boys’ or Girls’ Towns, and other welfare centres. St. Vincent de Paul societies have a nation-wide organization, and Charitas, the Catholic Hospital Organization, and the Catholic Medical Association work in the same field. The Catholic Young Workers (J.O.C.) are active among the working masses. Catholic publications are numerous, more than half the books being translations. A weekly newspaper carries Church news and religious features. Besides the Tosei News Service (in English), there are a dozen diocesan, parish, and organizational bulletins, five monthlies for general circulation, and some scientific publications such as “Monumenta Nipponica” published by the Jesuit university and “Folklore” published by the Divine Word Fathers. Three universities publish a general cultural magazine. The Catholic Encyclopedia is still incomplete, and there is no complete Catholic translation of the Old Testament. There are occasional attacks on the Church but little open denominational animosity. Since the war, there has been considerable cooperation in relief activities.
The number of Catholics has grown from 59,654 in 1905 to 105,165 in 1935, 119,224 in 1940, 108,324 in 1946, 142,460 in 1950, 185,284 in 1953, and 227,578 in 1956.
Statistics for 2015:[1]
3 Archdioceses, 13 dioceses, Archbishops 6, Bishops 18, Parishes 885, priests 1,496 (520 diocesan, 976 religious), 37 Permanent Deacons, 132 seminarians, 194 Brothers, 5.620 Sisters, 1,701 catechists, 6,302 baptisms.
543,000 Catholics or 0.42% of the population; Total Population 127,912,000.
Adult baptisms were 11,467 in 1956, with 6,100 infant baptisms and 2,634 baptisms in danger of death. Catechumens numbered 17,588.
Annual Communions numbered 146,274. In 1956, there were 231 Japanese and 10 foreign secular priests, 69 Japanese and 1,029 foreign regular priests, 208 Japanese and 168 foreign lay brothers, and 44 novice brothers. There were 241 diocesan major seminarians, 178 Japanese and 96 foreign religious major seminarians, 34 clerical novices, 235 diocesan and 246 religious minor seminarians. Japanese sisters numbered 2,729; foreign sisters, 984; novices and postulants, 1,512. In 1956, there were 1,204 Catholic marriages and 1,679 mixed marriages.
[1] 2016 Catholic Almanac