KAGOSHIMA, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. — On the southern coast of the island of Kyūshū (Japan), it was created on March 18, 1927, with territory taken from the diocese of Nagasaki. With an area of 7,883 sq. km and a population of 1,800,000 inhabitants, it comprises 577 Catholics; 360 catechumens; 3 native priests; 7 native sisters; 5 catechists; 15 teachers; 5 stations; one church and 2 chapels; one middle school; one orphanage; one kindergarten.
This mission, since 1936, has been entrusted to the Japanese secular clergy and is currently governed by an Apostolic Administrator. On January 13, 1947, the Ryūkyū Islands, having in fact become a possession of the United States of America, were detached from the Apostolic Prefecture of K. and entrusted to the Apostolic Vicar of Guam and subsequently placed under the care of an Apostolic Administrator.
K. is the principal city and the residence of the Ordinary. It was the first Japanese city to come into contact with Christianity, as St. Francis Xavier landed here on August 15, 1549, accompanied by two Spanish Jesuits, Fr. Cosma da Torres and Br. Giovanni Fernando, and by the Japanese samurai Paulo de Santa Fe, who had been baptized by the Apostle in Goa. However, the first nucleus of the Christian community subsequently disappeared without leaving a trace. In 1844, Msgr. Forcade of the Paris Foreign Missions, Apostolic Vicar of Japan, managed with difficulty to reach Naha, the capital of the province of Okinawa in the Ryūkyū Islands, followed in due course by other missionaries, but with little success in conversion. In 1890, Fr. Ferrier, after founding various mission stations, including K., was able to set foot on the island of Oshima (Ryūkyū), initiating a comforting movement of conversion. Finally, in 1906, the Franciscans arrived and held the mission until its transfer to the local clergy.