What We Do . . . Holistic Pastoral Care
We provide basic and holistic pastoral care (spiritual, physical, emotional) for migrants, their families and their communities as they face various difficulties entering a new country and in stabilizing their residence in Japan. We further assist them in their process of integration into society and the Japanese church.
In these efforts we hope that migrants and their families are led to rediscover their capabilities and to reclaim their human dignity so that together with the Catholic Japanese parishioners and other Japanese nationals they can create a multi-cultural church and society in Japan.
We do this together with or through the Foreign Language Pastoral Teams within ENCOM Yokohama in the four prefectures of Yokohama Diocese and with the local churches.
Assistance and Counseling
Direct support to be provided when migrants and their families are in distress or in crisis situations; e.g. facilitate access to legal, medical, labor problems’ consultation and government support. This also includes providing emotional, psychological and spiritual support through counseling or just by being with them. Another component is the detention visit for arrested/detained undocumented migrants at Ushiku Immigration Center to bring the love of Christ to the detainees.
Details of Consultation
Daily Life Problems / Labor Problems / Problem on Cross-cultural Marriages and Family / Medical / Documentation / Visa/Arrest/Detention
Training and Education
We aim to surface and cultivate the seeds of faith, life with dignity and creativity already planted in each migrant person by making them aware of their situation, values and Christian mission.
Spiritual Formation and Review of Values
Strengthening migrants’ Christian faith and values through awareness of their own ethnic spirituality, recollection, retreats, Bible study, etc.
Identity Awareness
Facilitation, especially for bi-cultural children to know and appreciate that part of themselves that is not Japanese; this is an essential step for their growth and empowerment.
Leadership Training
Enabling migrants’community members to develop leadership skills by undergoing a basic course on communication and conflict resolution, the bible, discipleship, marriage and family, environment, and migration including a study of the Pope’s recent exhortations.
Migration Issues
Updating the migrants’communities on the current situation, problems and issues on migration, see how these issues are affecting them and consider what necessary steps to take to promote and protect their rights and welfare.
Mission Awareness
Making the migrants and their communities aware of their Christian mission and encouraging them to be a Christian witness in their own family, community, the church and the society.
Japanese Class
Support for migrants, migrants’ children and their relatives who wish to learn basic Japanese language.
Tutorial Support for Children
Support for migrants’ children who recently arrived in Japan and have difficulty to speak, read and write the Japanese language to help them upgrade their skills in their Japanese language ability and to help them with their school studies.
Social Advocacy
Organizing awareness-raising seminars and forums on migration and migrants’ human rights and other related social issues, intended mainly but not exclusively for the Japanese parishioners to raise their awareness and deepen their understanding on the current situation and issues of migrants and their families.
Human rights awareness and involvement in the promotion and protection of the human dignity of migrants and their families
Launching and/or collaborate in signature campaign if needed, for the protection of migrants’ rights.
Writing petition letter to the Ministry of Justice and National Police against the police arrest of undocumented migrants inside the church premises.
Community Building
Expanding networks among migrants, various migrant ethnic communities and migrants’ supporting organizations by:
Creating Channels of Communication and Information
Networking Among Different Communities and other Migrants’ Supporting Organizations
Apostleship of the Sea (AOS)
Attending to the needs of Seafarers and creating awareness about their conditions.