FUKUOKA, Diocese of. – It was erected by apostolic brief on 16 July 1927 through division of the Diocese of Nagasaki and until 1940 remained entrusted to the priests of the Paris Foreign Missions Society. On 16 March 1941 it was entrusted to the Japanese secular clergy. It is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Tokyo. Situated in the Kyushu region, southern Japan, it comprises three civil districts: F., Kumamoto and Saga.
F. is today the most important city of Kyushu, of which it is considered the capital. It is also the seat of a major interdiocesan seminary, canonically erected by decree of the Propaganda Fide in 1948 for the students of the missions of southern Japan for the study of philosophy and theology. This institute already has 69 seminarians. F. also possesses a fine cathedral and a suitable episcopal residence. There are 12,203 Catholics, 1,228 catechumens, 8 indigenous priests, 21 foreign priests, 5 indigenous brothers, 2 foreign brothers, 157 teaching sisters, 30 foreign sisters, 41 catechists, 150 teachers, 27 major seminarians. There are 21 churches and 14 oratories, 5 crèches with 126 children, 1 orphanage with 50 children, 6 homes for the elderly with 78 residents, 3 poorhouses with 564 poor, 1 leper hospital with 79 lepers, 4 hospitals, 4 high schools with 735 pupils, 5 middle schools with 1,738 pupils, 1 primary school with 180 pupils, 5 kindergartens, 1 college with 13 pupils.