| The Kanto area includes the whole Tokyo Metropolitan area. It accounts for 10% of the total national land area and 31% of the population. Centralizaton of population in and around Tokyo creates a number of problems. The same can be said for church concentration. The number of churches per population in the 23 wards of Tokyo is high. It will continue to grow higher because Tokyo's population has been decreasing since 1988. The population of suburban cities and adjacent prefectuers is increasing, but the number of new churches has not been able to keep up. |
This population shift causes many Christians to transfer to different churches. Those who once belonged to the historic churches in Tokyo City proper are moving out and attending suburban churches. The number of towns and villages which have no churches was reduced by 14 in the last five years. There are still 150 towns and villages without churches, and 15 of them have a population of over 20,000. The total population of these 15 towns exceeds 410,000, and they have grown a total of 35,000 in the past five years. These growing areas need special attention by Kanto church planters. |