TOP > TOKYO ARCHDIOCESE
|
HISTORY The Evangelization of Japan starts in 1549 with the arrival of St.Francis Xavier, and goes on until 1587, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi issued the edict forbidding Christianity and orders all missionaries to leave Japan. In the following years of persecution, also in Edo (actual Tokyo) there were cases of martyrdom in 1612 and 1623. After the "seclusion period", the first missionaries of the Paris Mission Society arrived in Japan in 1858 and were stationed in the three ports of Nagasaki, Yokohama and Hakodate. In 1876 the mission of Japan was divided in two Apostolic Vicariates : Southern Japan with center in Nagasaki and Northern Japan with center in Tokyo. The first Vicar Apostolic of Northern Japan was Mgr. Pierre Marie Osouf. On April 17, 1891. the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Japan was divided into the Archdiocese of Tokyo and the Diocese of Hakodate, and Mgr. Osouf was appointed the first Archbishop of Tokyo. On August 13, 1912, the Archdiocese of Tokyo ceded the prefectures of
Toyama, Fukui and Ishikawa to the newly established Prefecture Apostolic
of Niigata, and on February 18, 1922, the prefectures of Aichi and Gifu
were ceded to the newly established Prefecture Apostolic of Nagoya.
ARCHBISHOP: Most Reverend Peter Okada Takeo
STATISTICS (2009) Area of the
Archdiocese: Tokyo-to and Chiba-ken (7,344Square km)
|