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The charism of Mother Teresa Gerhardinger was brought to Japan by four Sisters, who carried out Jesus' mission to make one wherever sent by serving the people, telling them the Good News and responding to the urgent need of the people and the time.
In 1948, Mother Evangela Wagner (SL) accompanied Sister Eugenia Laker,
Sister Mary Paul Niemann, Sister Vivienne Hazelett and Sister Richard Ann
(Mary Louis) FitzGibon from St. Louis to Japan to open the first mission
of School Sisters of Notre Dame. It was significant that a similar group
of School Sisters of Notre Dame had set out from Europe to America just
100 years before.
The Sisters purchased a Japanese house for their first convent at Shishigatani
located at the foot of the mountain in the east of the city of Kyoto. This
house was destined to become the first Japanese convent, where most of
the Japanese Sisters received their initial formation.
Thus, for the first twenty years, Japan was a mission territory of the
St. Louis Province. God continued to send Japanese converts to us every
year from 1949 until roughly the 1970s. Since that time, vocations have
been scarce. |
In April 1970, Japan obtained the status of Region according to our Constitution(YAS),
forming an independent unit. In 1983 the Nepal mission was started and
four Sisters were sent there. Thirteen years later in 1996, we started
the Korean mission, where one Sister was sent, and another joined her in
1997.
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| At present (2004) the Japan Region consists of 76 members: 71 Japanese, 4 Americans and one Korean. The majority are stationed in Kyoto with 8 in Karasaki, Otsu and 3 in Okinawa. Eight memebrs are stationed in 4 countries other than Japan: Nepal (4), Korea (1), Rome (1) and U.S.A. (2). |
From the very beginning, we have been engaged in institutions of formal
education:Notre Dame Primary School established in 1954 has about 1000
students,Notre Dame Junior and Senior High School established in 1952 has
about 1000 students and Notre Dame College established in 1961 has about
1200 students. Sisters are also engaged in spiritual direction, church
ministry, community service, volunteer works, private lessons such as music,
calligraphy, tea-ceremony, flower arrangement, scripture classes, etc.
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| However, considering the decreasing number of Sistersin school ministry, all the members of the Region have been engaged in discussion of how to enable the non-Christian staff to continue our ideals of Christian education based on the principle of Mother Theresa in all of our Notre Dame Schools. |
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