ASIA/JAPAN - Catholic schools at the service of evangelisation in Japan

Tokyo (Fides Service) -Catholic schools are a channel for evangelising in Japan. This emerged after a meeting of 190 Catholic educators who gathered in Tokyo for the 18th general meeting of the Commission for Catholic School Education in Japan. Initially Catholic schools were opened and run by religious institutes, but today lay Catholics are ever more involved in teaching in schools.
A slight drop in the number of pupils, due mainly to a declining birth rate in Japan accordino to experts, has led to smaller classes and hence more individual tutoring and even higher quality education.
The Church in Japan may decide to reform the school system to make it more attractive: choice of curriculum, open to all branches of knowledge, guaranteeing quality and latest technology while remaining faithful to Christian values.
For Archbishop Ikenaga Jun of Osaka, president of the Bishops’ Commission for Education, Catholic school personnel must be motivated to offer a service for the human, cultural and professional development of the pupils, helping them to discover their talents, facilitating the learning process, keeping in mind the needs of youth of the third millennium in the era of cultural and technological globalisation. “Whether the board president or the principal is a Catholic or not - the Archbishop said - great care must be taken to select a person who is committed to education based on Catholic principles.”
Catholic schools and universities in Japan have a total number of about 230,000 pupils and students, including many non Catholics. These schools are channels of evangelisation not so much for preaching the Gospel but because they are places where people bear witness to faith in Christ and God’s love for all people.
There were several non Catholic parents present at the meeting in Tokyo who praised Catholic schools for all-round excellent education. “Not only do the children grow up relaxed, the parents also become involved. The whole school is like one big warm family. There are talks on religion for the parents and get-togethers and opportunities to take part in social service activities. We knew nothing about the Catholic Church before but since our boy started going to St Dominic’s our world has changed.
According to the Church’s Book of Statistics 2003 in Japan Catholics run 555 kindergartens for 77,000 children; 56 primary schools for 23,000 children; 171 secondary schools with 72,000 pupils; and about 20,000 students attend Catholic high schools and 40,000 go to Catholic universities. The Church in Japan estimates that Catholics in Japan are now more than one million: 450,000 Japanese born, and at least 565,000 foreign immgrants.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 13/7/2005 righe 27 parole 270)