Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, SVD (; born 1 November 1958) is a Japanese Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Tokyo since 2017 and president of

Caritas Internationalis Caritas Internationalis (Latin for ) is a confederation of 162 national Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. The name Caritas Internationalis refers to both the ...

since May 2023. He was Bishop of Niigata from 2004 to 2017. He previously worked as a missionary in

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. He is a member of the

Divine Word Missionaries The Society of the Divine Word (), abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men. As of 2020, i ...

. Kikuchi has served as president of Caritas Japan and Caritas Asia, as well a member of the Representative Council of Caritas Internationalis. He was made a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

in 2024 by

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

Biography

Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi was born in Iwate on 1 November 1958. He studied for the priesthood in Japan and took his vows as a member of the

(the "Verbiti" or "Verbites") in March 1985 and he was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

a priest on 15 March 1986. He did additional studies at the Spiritual Institute of Sacred Heart in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. From 1986 to 1992 he worked as a missionary in

in the Archdiocese of

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

and the Diocese of

Koforidua Koforidua, also popularly known as K.dua or Koftown and now Kofcity, is a city and the capital of Eastern Region, Ghana, Eastern Region of Ghana. The city has a population of 183,727 people as of 2010. The city is a blend of colonial and moder ...

, working as a parish priest in rural areas. He returned to Japan and served his order as formator, vice prefect of novices, and vocations director for a year and then as its provincial councilor from 1994 to 1999, taking on several additional roles. Beginning in 1994 he also began teaching at

Nanzan University is a Private university, private, Catholic and Mixed-sex education, coeducational higher education institution run by the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) in the Shōwa-ku, Nagoya, Shōwa Ward of Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It is consi ...

and became a member of the International Aid Committee of the Japanese Bishops Conference. He became coordinator of his order's Office of Justice and Peace for Asia in 1996. He became a member of Caritas Japan in 1998 and began representing the Japanese bishops at international conferences in 1998. He served as executive director of Caritas Japan from 1999 to 2004, after first gaining experience with that organization as a volunteer in the refugee camp in

Bukavu Bukavu is a city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), lying at the extreme south-western edge of Lake Kivu, west of Cyangugu in Rwanda, and separated from it by the outlet of the Ruzizi River. It is the capital of the South Kivu P ...

(then in Zaire, now in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

) in the 1990s. Kikuchi was elected provincial of his order's Japanese province in 1999 and elected to a second three-year term in 2002. He became a member of the Diocese of Nagoya's committee for permanent clerical formation that same year.

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed him the Bishop of Niigata on 29 April 2004. He received his

episcopal consecration A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role ...

on 20 September at the Salle de Seishin Girls' High School in Niigata from Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada of Tokyo, with Bishops Rafael Masahiro Umemura of Yokohama and Marcellino Taiji Tani of Saitama as

co-consecrators A consecrator is a bishop who ordains someone to the episcopacy. A co-consecrator is someone who assists the consecrator bishop in the act of ordaining a new bishop. The terms are used in the canon law of the Catholic Church, Lutheran Churche ...

. He took as his motto (Unity in Diversity). On 13 September 2014, Pope Francis named him a member of the

Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples The Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (CEP; ) was a congregation (Roman Curia), congregation of the Roman Curia of the Catholic Church in Rome, responsible for Catholic missions, missionary work and related activities. It is also kn ...

. He attended the beatification for

Takayama Ukon , born and also known as Dom Justo Takayama (c. 1552/1553 - 5 February 1615) was a Kirishitan, Japanese Catholic daimyō and samurai during the Sengoku period that saw rampant Anti-Catholicism, anti-Catholic sentiment. Takayama was baptize ...

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

in 2017 and proposed the late

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

as "a model for all" since he had "renounced privileges and wealth for the faith".

appointed Kikuchi Archbishop of Tokyo on 25 October 2017. Kikuchi was installed there on 16 December 2017. He has been a member of the Representative Council of Caritas International and headed Caritas Asia from 2011 to 2019. On 15 May 2023, Kikuchi was elected to a four-year term as president of Caritas Internationalis. In the summer of 2021, when Japan had declared its fourth state of emergency because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kikuchi canceled plans for his parishes to provide services to participants and support staff of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics. He announced that those visiting Tokyo for the games "will be requested to refrain from visiting churches". Kikuchi is president of the Japanese Bishops Conference and secretary general of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences. On 6 October 2024, Pope Francis announced that he planned to make Kikuchi a cardinal on 8 December, a date that was later changed to 7 December. Kikuchi praised Francis for "this symbolic gesture of appointing number of cardinals from the challenging mission areas in Asia". On 7 December 2024, Pope Francis made him a cardinal, assigning him as a member of the order of cardinal priests the title of San Giovanni Leonardi. He participated as a

cardinal elector A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. Ca ...

in the

2025 papal conclave A conclave was held on 7 and 8 May 2025 to elect a new pope to succeed Pope Francis, Francis, who had died on 21 April 2025. Of the 135 eligible Cardinal electors in the 2025 papal conclave, cardinal electors, all but two attended. Cardinal Piet ...

that elected

Pope Leo XIV Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Francis Prevost, September 14, 1955) has been head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State since May 2025. He is the first pope to have been born in the United States and North America, the fir ...

Positions

North Korea

Kikuchi has been a staunch advocate for dialogue in relation to North Korea's nuclear program and their

diplomatic crisis Diplomatics (in American English, and in most anglophone countries), or diplomatic (in British English), is a scholarly discipline centred on the critical analysis of documents, especially historical documents. It focuses on the conventions, pr ...

with the

United States of America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguo ...

. In August 2017 he expressed his hope that the Japanese government would undertake "an initiative of dialogue that involves all the sides concerned in this crisis to find a diplomatic solution". He also asserted that dialogue remains "the only solution to peaceful coexistence in this part of Asia". He also accused "new political leaders" of exploiting the confrontation for their own political purposes and called for renewed negotiations.

Evangelization

Kikuchi supports missionary and evangelization efforts. He affirms that it is vital to "sow and witness the Gospel in our society today" though ponders on "where and how to evangelize" in the community. Kikuchi continues that "it is up to us to proclaim and witness the joy of the Gospel to mankind today. The grace of Christ sustains us and guides us in this journey" to bring His message to others. Kikuchi spoke on evangelization during the visit of Cardinal

Fernando Filoni Fernando Filoni (born 15 April 1946) is an Italian cardinal of the Catholic Church who serves as Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre. He was Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples from 2011 to 20 ...

to Japan in September 2017 and expressed his hope that evangelization efforts on the part of the faithful would be "humble" but bold and direct.

The environment

Kikuchi is a strong advocate of environmental protection and wrote a piece for ''Asia News'' in support of the pope's

encyclical An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Roman Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop. The word comes from the Late Latin (originally fr ...

Laudato si' ''Laudato si'' (''Praise Be to You'') is the second encyclical of Pope Francis, subtitled "on care for our common home". In it, the Pope criticizes consumerism and irresponsible economic development, laments environmental degradation and gl ...

''. The bishop said that in the piece that it was the role of all Christians in the protection and development of the environment with the proper allocation of resources on an equal level. He further asserted that "we must act to protect the lives of future generations" if "environmental degradation" went unchecked and too far. He further elaborated that the encyclical provided a "solid foundation" to be built upon for committing oneself to environmental protection and activism.

LGBT

Kikuchi recommended and contributed to ''LGBT and Christianity'', a volume supportive of LGBT rights, which was supervised by Aika Taira, a gay pastor of the

United Church of Christ in Japan The United Church of Christ in Japan (UCCJ; ''Nihon Kirisuto Kyōdan'', or ''Kyōdan'' for short) is the largest Protestant denomination in Japan. It is a union of thirty-three diverse Protestant denominations forcibly merged by the Japanese wa ...

. The book was promoted by the Catholic HIV/AIDS Desk, an organization that, with the support of the Japanese Episcopal Conference, provides health information and fights anti-LGBT discrimination.

References

External links

Archbishop Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, S.V.D.
on Catholic Hierarchy
Tarcisius Isao Kikuchi, S.V.D., Archbishop of Tokyo, Profile
Archdiocese of Tokyo {{DEFAULTSORT:Kikuchi, Tarcisio Isao 1958 births 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Japan Bishops appointed by Pope John Paul II Divine Word Missionaries Order Japanese Roman Catholic missionaries Living people People from Iwate Prefecture Roman Catholic missionaries in Ghana Japanese Roman Catholic archbishops Nanzan University alumni Cardinals created by Pope Francis Japanese cardinals