TOKYO (UCAN): The Katorikku Shimbun, the weekly newspaper of the Catholic Church in Japan, ended its 102-year history with its March 30 edition, unable to bear the increasing costs and falling subscriptions, sources say. The first issue was published on 1 January 1923 by a group of young laypeople in Tokyo. It will transition to electronic distribution.
In March last year, Isao Cardinal Kikuchi, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan, announced that beginning in April 2025, news for the Church in Japan would be disseminated electronically.
“Considering the newspaper’s current business situation and the Internet’s spread, we have been considering how we should disseminate information about the Catholic Church in Japan for several years,” he said.
“We have decided to start concrete work to establish a new form of information dissemination,” the cardinal said.
According to the source, the new news site, Catholic Japan News [https://cj-news.org/], will go online at midnight on April 1.
A monthly free printed digest of the online news will also be sent to all churches and Catholic institutions in Japan to help those who have difficulty connecting to the Internet.
The publication’s century-long history speaks of its commitment and struggles. One of the founders wrote, “We will help the Church and do whatever we can for believers to spread Catholicism in society. That is the mission of Catholic youth.”
