Archdiocese comprising 21 provinces or 15 departments with a
population of over 16,000,000 inhabitants. From 1866 until 1876
Japan formed only one vicariate Apostolic administered by Mgr.
Petitjean, the first vicar Apostolic of the country (1866-1884).
In 1876 it was divided into two vicariates; that of south Japan,
extending from Biwa Lake to the Loochoo Islands, with Mgr.
Petitjean at Osaka, and that of North Japan, comprising the
northern provinces from Biwa Lake to the Kurile Islands, ruled
by Mgr. Osouf (1876-1906), the new vicar Apostolic , residing in
Tokio. In 1891 Leo XIII established the ecclesiastical hierarchy
in Japan, and erected the Diocese of Hakodate out of the eight
most northern provinces ad the Yezo, Sado, and Kurile Islands.
The same year Mgr. Osouf was created Archbishop of Tokio, with
the Bishops of Nagasaki, Osaka, and Hakodate as his suffragans.
When, in 1866, Mgr. Petitjean visited the territory of the
future Archdiocese of Tokio, he found only two missionaries at
Yokohama, where the