Paris Foreign Missions: The Christian Epic in Japan

The history of the evangelization of Japan initially presents two aspects: sometimes a rapid expansion, sometimes a series of setbacks and disasters ending in tragedies.

The “Christian Century”

St. Francis Xavier disembarked in Japan at Kagoshima (Satsuma) in 1549, during the first attempts to unify the country. The expansion of Catholicism was quite notable and brought about the conversion of several governors (daimyo). Thanks to permission to evangelize, the Jesuit missionaries gradually increased the number of baptized people.

The Jesuit Alessandro Valignano arrived in 1579 as a visitor of the missions. In 1582, he organizes the first embassy to Europe, which met with Pope Gregory XIII in 1585. But a first ban on Christianity was imposed by shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1587 with the banishment of missionaries. On February 5, 1597, 26 martyrs were crucified at Nagasaki.

Secrecy

Starting in 1614, the shoguns sought to eliminate Catholicism: at this date, each family had to be registered with a Buddhist temple. Then, starting in 1619, signs were placed in the cities and villages throughout the whole country as a reminder of the ban on Christianity, offering sizable rewards for the denunciation of Christians.

Scenes of martyrdoms were witnessed at Kyoto in 1619, Nagasaki in 1622, and Edo (Tokyo) in 1623. Systematic torture appeared around 1630 to promote apostasy. It was in this context that an embassy was sent by the daimyo of Sendai to the viceroy of Mexico in 1613 to obtain the opening of a transpacific trade route. In exchange, the Christian religion would be tolerated.

The embassy was entrusted to the samurai Hasekura Tsunenaga, accompanied by the Spanish Franciscan Luis Sotelo. The viceroy sent messengers to the King of Spain, Philip III. The king finally sent the ambassadors to Pope Paul V, who received them in November 1615. But Paul V returned the final decision to the Spanish monarch, who refused to see the envoys of the daimyo of Sendai again.

The failure of the embassy provoked the banning of Christianity and the hunting of Christians. Having succeeded in secretly returning to Japan, Luis Sotelo was burned alive in Tokyo in 1623. The time of great persecution began. The Christian population, estimated at 650,000 people, was decimated. Terrible tortures were inflicted.

The Shimabara Rebellion (1637-1638), organized by Christian peasants under the Tokugawa shogunate, was fiercely put down, with the support of the Dutch navy, which fired its cannons on Hara Castle--where the rebels were sheltered--to support the loyalist troops. The massacre of 30,000 Christians lasted three days.

Christianity Emerges from the Shadows

In the 19th century, France wanted to make up for lost time in the race for Asia. The Holy See had not given up on refounding a mission in Japan. Finally, the Paris Foreign Missions aspired to regain the prestigious missionary field of Japan. The first Franco-Japanese treaty was signed in 1858, but the presence of religious ministers was only permitted for the Westerners; Christianity remained forbidden for the Japanese. The missionaries settled in concessions reserved for foreigners at Hakodate, Kanagawa, and Nagasaki.

On March 17, 1865, a group of Japanese presented themselves as Christian to Fr. Bernard Petitjean (1829-1884) of the Paris Foreign Missions, which had established itself at Nagasaki and had built a church there, consecrated in 1865. The missionaries discovered organization, rites, and doctrinal elements secretly transmitted for 250 years, without priests and with very few writings. But the persecution, with arrests and executions, was still ongoing, especially in 1856 at Urakami, near Nagasaki.

The longest persecution and the most trying persecution took place between 1867 and 1873, years which witnessed the collapse of the Tokugawa regime and the restoration of the imperial regime. The regime put in place with the Meiji period (1868) carried out a transformative work: the modernization of political and economic structures. But a hard line was adopted regarding Christians.

An imperial theocracy founded on Shintoism was promoted. The leaders were uneasy about the true intentions of the Westerners, and anti-Christian sentiment was at its height. The appointment of Fr. Petitjean as bishop in 1866 triggered the persecution: in 1868, it was decided to deport Christians from Urakami to 60 different fiefdoms throughout Japan.

A détente began in 1872: the anti-Christian policy was finally buried. The signs prohibiting Christianity, in place since the 17th century, were removed in February 1873. The Christians of Urakami were able to return home and religious freedom was granted to them.

Freedom Under Surveillance

Traveling missions were organized thanks to a certain freedom of movement. The internal passport, limiting stays in the same place to three days, pushed missionaries to traverse vast regions. From a political point of view, a Shinto State, nationalist and led by the Emperor, emerged: it distanced itself from Buddhism and remained suspicious of Christianity or even hostile to it.

The first Constitution of Japan, in 1889, granted religious freedom, although very restricted. It was ultimately only what the government had effectively been allowing since 1873. This permitted the creation of dioceses and establishing the Church outside of the enclaves to which it had been relegated. The Paris Foreign Missions then called for nuns to take charge of orphanages, schools, and dispensaries.

Other congregations re-established themselves on Japanese soil: Dominicans, Franciscans, and Jesuits, who had been expelled two and half centuries earlier. But with the Imperial Rescript of October 30, 1890, loyalty to the Emperor became fundamental. This was understood as presenting an urgent need to form a native clergy in case the missionaries would again be driven out.

The rise in the archipelago’s military power--the victories against China, Taiwan, and Russia, the annexation of Korea, the invasion of Manchuria--pushed the regime toward the military. The Church adapted itself to Japan and an agreement was reached on the question of the rites due to the Emperor. With World War II, the situation of foreigners within the Church in Japan became more and more difficult.

After the defeat, the Constitution of 1946, still in effect, allowed the total freedom of Catholicism.

The Church in Japan from 1945 to Present Day

According to 2023 statistics, there are 431,100 Catholics, including 6,200 seminarians, priests, and religious, making up .34% of the Japanese population. But this number only takes into account “registered” Catholics--a system inherited from the time of persecution. With migrants--people from Latin America, the Philippines, and Vietnam especially--the Catholic population is estimated at 1%.

Nevertheless, the Church has many institutions--hospitals, schools, aid centers, and even universities--which give Catholicism a significant presence in Japanese society.