(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD, the archbishop of Tokyo, Japan, in a recent interview lamented the “polite persecution” of Japanese Catholics who are afraid to speak out on political issues due to the country’s strict adherence to the principle of “separation between religion and state.”
During a February 28 interview with Crux Now, Kikuchi stressed that the faithful in Japan, who make up a small religious minority, no longer face violent persecution thanks to the “separation of state and religion,” which ended the violent persecution at the hands of the State Shintō government. However, this separation of state and religion, according to the prelate, has led to a “polite persecution” in which Catholics in the Land of the Rising Sun are criticized as “too political” and shamed for speaking out on political issues, such as the “fair treatment of migrants.”
Kikuchi, who was made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2024, has a long history of supporting mass migration, the LGBT agenda, and so-called “climate change.”
“In the current context, religious activities are generally welcomed by the public as long as they remain confined within their own premises, such as temples and churches,” the cardinal said. “However, the principle of separation between state and religion is often misunderstood to mean that religious matters should never appear in the public arena.”
“In addition, Japanese culture places a high value on conformity and social harmony,” he added. “For this reason, whenever the Church takes a public position on a government policy, especially when such policies negatively affect human dignity, or when it issues public statements, for example calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons in the pursuit of lasting peace, or calling for fair treatment of migrants, the Church is criticized for being ‘too political.'”
Kikuchi continued:
It is often argued that, because of the principle of separation between religion and state, the Church should refrain from speaking about any matters related and considered as political matters. This makes it difficult for the Church to speak up regarding matters negatively affecting human dignity. Religion is not recognized as a moral authority in this country and as long as we contain ourselves in the Church premises, we are considered harmless and fine.
While Kikuchi emphasized his concern about the Church being pressured not to publicly take positions on key political issues because of the principle of separation of church and state, he notably chose to highlight the purported mistreatment of migrants, for which he doesn’t make any distinction between legal and illegal immigrants, and abolishing nuclear weapons.
However, the archbishop of Tokyo omitted any mention of the most pressing policy issue that affects human dignity, abortion, or the murder of unborn children. In Japan, surgical abortion is currently legal up to 22 weeks into pregnancy, and the abortion pill, which was only legalized in 2023, is permitted up to nine weeks into gestation, despite the fact that the country is going through a dramatic population decline.
READ: Japan approves first over-the-counter contraception pill despite birth rate crisis
“Since peaking at 126.6 million in 2009, the population has declined for 16 consecutive years,” CNN reported in August, highlighting another drop of more than 900,000 the country experienced in 2024, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The Japanese prelate has proposed mass migration as a solution to Japan’s demographic decline and has argued that migration is one of the most important issues facing the Church and world today.
On the other hand, Kikuchi has previously spoken out against the evil of abortion and joined public campaigns against moves to expand access to abortion pills, making this omission even more glaring.
Kikuchi has also long supported the LGBT movement, allowing special Masses for the group “LGBT Catholic Japan” in the Archdiocese of Tokyo, while also, according to New Ways Ministry, authoring a series of essays entitled LGBT and Christianity for the Catholic HIV/AIDS Desk.
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When Kikuchi was named a cardinal, InfoVaticana pointed out that his notes form part of a book that supposedly “conveys the richness of sexual diversity and possibilities by talking about the difficulties of life for sexual minorities, as well as the hopes and examples that are constantly being realized in society and the Church.”
The outlet also noted that in 2015, while serving as bishop of Niigata, Kikuchi wrote an article for Asia News that championed Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, which called for “climate and ecological justice,” and linked natural disasters to so-called “climate change.”
“It is not enough to provide a temporary remedy to the current crisis to rescue people affected by climate change and environmental degradation, but we must also always consider a long-term solution for future generations, which may require us to change the current comfortable lifestyle,” he said at the time.