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At the end of 2024 the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Japan counted 412,958 Catholics, 0.331 percent of a population of about 124.9 million, in 15 dioceses.Four years earlier, at the end of 2020, the figure was 435,083.
The heart of the map is still where the kept the faith. In the Archdiocese of , 56,066 Catholics make up 4.346 percent of the population: more than ten times the national rate, and second in absolute numbers only to the far larger Archdiocese of Tokyo (93,765).
The Church gathers in 944 churches, 770 of them parishes, served by 1,286 priests, 27 of them bishops; 507 of the priests hold foreign nationality.On an ordinary Sunday in 2024 about 78,000 people came to Mass; at Easter about 131,000, and at Christmas about 159,000.In the same year 3,922 people were baptized, 2,052 of them adults.The Church also runs 316 schools, from primary schools to universities.
The bishops speak frankly about the strains. Their 2024 report to the Synod in Rome notes that Japan's low birth rate and ageing society touch the Church too, and that "the ageing of the faithful is conspicuous".They also describe a Church already "multinational and multicultural," in which many residents from abroad, "especially workers from Asia and South America," have become "important members" of its communities.The same report adds that through its schools and charitable work the Church "is widely recognised in Japanese society," and that its walking alongside people after earthquakes and other disasters has been accepted even by non-Christians.
What is uncertain
Where the sources disagree
- Disputed: the Synod report (dated May 4, 2024) gives "about 437,000" and 773 parishes, from older statistics; the 2024 yearbook figures are preferred.