SHIKOKU, APOSTOLIC PREFECTURE OF. — Located on the island of the same name, it comprises four civil provinces, namely Kagawa, Tokushima, Kochi, and Ehime, with a total area of 18,250 sq. km. and a population of 4,219,044 inhabitants, mostly Buddhists and Shintoists. It was erected on 27 January 1904, by separation from the diocese of Osaka.
The beginnings of evangelization on the island of Shikoku date back to the 16th century and are due to some Jesuit Fathers. Among them, Fr. Francesco Cabral deserves mention; in 1575, he converted the daimyo of Tosa. This mission also had its martyrs, including St. Paul Miki, martyred in 1597. The Dominicans of the Province of the Most Holy Rosary in the Philippines began their work on Shikoku in 1903 and administered the mission until 30 November 1950, when it passed to the Japanese secular clergy, with the appointment of an Apostolic Administrator.
In 1949, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, of American nationality, arrived on the island. For missionary purposes, Shikoku is divided into three deaneries: Kagawa, entrusted to the secular clergy; Kochi-Tokushima, to the Oblates of Mary Immaculate; and Ehime, to the Dominicans. In addition to these two groups of foreign missionaries, at the end of 1951 some priests from the Spanish Institute of St. Francis Xavier of Burgos joined them; they carry out their ministry in the Marugame district, in the province of Kagawa. Shikoku, a region predominantly Buddhist, once counted as many as 88 Buddhist temples, where the Japanese people, before the war, made their pilgrimages. However, in the postwar period, the moral strength of both Buddhism and Shintoism seems to have weakened among the people.
There are 1,300 Catholics; 3,000 Protestants; and 100 schismatics. There are 23 priests, of whom 4 are native. There is no seminary, but young men are sent to the minor seminary of Osaka and the major seminary of Tokyo. There are 15 Dominican Sisters and 4 Japanese Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; 5 catechists and 20 teachers; 1 middle school; 1 orphanage; 5 kindergartens; 10 churches; and 10 quasi-parishes.