Mary, Queen of Scots – after reading

Catholics – Write about the history of this religion in your country.

Catholics was introduced to Japan by Francis Xavier in 1549.  He arrived at Kagoshima prefecture and worked a lot to expand it in Japan.  About 450,000 Japanese became Christian over 50 years, but as the unification of the country progressed, Catholic was prohibited and the country was closed to foreign commerce.  Many Christians were martyred for their faith.

After the country was re-opened in 1859, Christian missions were restarted.  The foreign missionaries visited Japan and the churches were built by them.  However, Japan stated that emperor was a religious head of state after 1890 and unified the thought and education.  During World War II, the churches were forced to cooperate for the war.

After the war, a freedom of religion was accepted, and many missionaries came to Japan from North America and Europe.  Even though that, it was difficult to expand Catholic to Japan as the traditional religions and the customs were deeply penetrated to family life and observances.  Therefore, the number of Christian is only 1% of Japanese population.  Nowadays, many people came to Japan from South East Asia, Middle East and Latin America for work, and Catholic Churches in Japan are also expected to fulfill the international responsibility.