Catholic Mass in Vietnamese serves as a tether for community
Soft light streaming through the ceiling blanketed over a thousand parishioners attending a recent Sunday afternoon Mass at St. Ignatius Catholic Church as strong voices sang an uplifting hymn in Vietnamese.
The weekly 3 p.m. Mass at the church near JR Yotsuya Station in Tokyo's Kojimachi district is a lively one, with little children running around the space.
Priest Nguyen Thanh Nha, 42, began conducting Mass eight years ago and is loved by the people who call him "Cha," Vietnamese for "father," at the church.
Nha came to Japan in 2009 as a seminarian and studied at Faculty of Theology at Sophia University, whose Yotsuya campus is next to the church, and other institutions before being ordained.
St. Ignatius offers Masses in six foreign languages that include English, Indonesian and Spanish.
While Catholics from the United States or European countries used to make up the bulk of attendees, the parish has seen an increase in churchgoers from Southeast Asia and South America since the 1980s.
For context, Japan's Vietnamese population was about 50,000 in 2012. It exceeded 600,000 in 2024.
Vietnamese Mass went from being held once a month to twice a week last year, with some commuting two hours by train to attend.
'I believe it reaches deep into their hearts because it is in Vietnamese,' Nha said.
A youth group consisting of 170 individuals assists with each service and includes choir members, those in charge of livestreaming the Mass and a team that cares for any attendees in need.
'My job is hard, but I look forward to coming here, singing together and eating together after a week,' said choir member Nguyen Phuong Ngoc, 25, who works at a hotel in Tokyo's Omotesando area.
Many of these members get married after working on church activities together. The church has officiated around 100 weddings annually over the past few years.
It is also becoming common for couples unable to return to their home countries to instead hold ceremonies in Japan with the intent of visiting family and holding celebrations in the future.
LAWYERS AND PRIESTS
The church also handles difficult cases, one involving Nguyen Van Anh, 32, who grew up in central Vietnam and is from an impoverished family. He borrowed 1.1 million yen ($7,700) and came to Japan as a technical intern in 2022.
As a technical intern, he worked at a demolition company in Shizuoka Prefecture where he got up at 5 a.m. and earned 116,000 yen a month. Anh sent 85,000 yen home each month, but ran away after working for the company for five months because he was unable to pay off his debt.
He then worked for a farm in Ibaraki Prefecture before transferring to a scrap factory in Chiba Prefecture where he sorted aluminum and other materials from piles of metal scraps. Despite poor living conditions, Anh told himself it was better than the technical internship since he was earning about 170,000 yen a month.
Anh lost two fingers on his left hand and injured three on his right at work last April. His employer, fearing the repercussions of hiring illegal labor, did not call an ambulance and instead had an acquaintance drive Anh to the hospital five hours later.
He was arrested for not having a passport after the hospital called police. After a 20-day detention, Anh was reassigned to an immigration facility where he was taken in by a priest and a lawyer.
After completing an interview part of the examination of his work-related accident, he returned to Vietnam in March.
COUNSEL, NOT CONDEMNATION
The number of consultations from technical intern trainees continues to grow. At the end of last year, a man in his 20s shared with the church that he had been fired for dating a fellow intern trainee despite the workplace prohibiting relationships.
Following Nha's advice, he told the supervisory organization that he would consult with a lawyer, and was able to transfer to another company.
In a more somber incident from two years ago, the priest picked up the cremated remains of a 27-year-old man who had committed suicide. The man wasn't able to speak Japanese, and was troubled by not being able to repay the debts he owed when he came to Japan.
"It must have been difficult for him, not being able to confide in anyone," said Nha. Six months later, the remains were returned to his family.
Many intern trainees are unable to find work after returning to Vietnam.
'They only let them work when they can, and then they treat them like disposable tools,' Nha said, who hopes that he can help young people who find themselves being pushed into a corner.
'I thought that because I'm a priest, people would call me 'Father,' but I hope to become everyone's true father,' he said.
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