The number of baptized in Japan is increasing. It was the result of a statistic report relating to 2006 and made known by the Bishops’ Conference of Japan, counting the number of Japanese believers (including clergy and religious): over 452,000 units out of 127 million inhabitants. In 2006, the baptisms were 7,193, 3,692 of which concerned adults, and 3,501 children. On the other hand, the adult catechumens were over 5.400. The piece of news was made known by Fides international agency, according to which "about 60% of the Japanese Catholics were women; the census was carried out on the basis of parish registers. For this reason, all those who were not registered, or not included for they were foreigners, did not appear in the counting (the foreign Catholics in Japan are a remarkable number: about 565,000)". In accordance with the data in the report, the archdiocese of Tokyo was in the lead by the number of believers (95,362), the priests were 1,553 (926 of whom were Japanese), the deacons were 38, the seminarians were 138, and the young involved in training activities, in preparation of the seminar, were 58. The female religious were 6,060 (372 foreigners), 201 were non-priest male religious (147 local, and 54 foreigners). An encouraging percentage is the one of Catholic marriages: 3,130 of them were celebrated, 1,450 of which between a Catholic and a non-Catholic person, who, in many cases, has started its conversion path.
