The Rt. Rev. Renta Nishihara, Bishop of Chubu and Administrator Bishop of Kyoto, has been elected as the 21st primate of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai (NSKK), Japan’s Anglican church, during its biennial synod held in Tokyo August 31-September 2. Elected on the first ballot, Nishihara succeeds the Most Rev. David Eiso Uehara, who had led the church since May 2024.
A native of Kyoto , the 64-year-old Nishihara, who also uses the religious name Francis of Assisi, is a noted scholar and ecumenist and has represented his church on several Anglican Communion bodies in recent years. He has served Chubu diocese, in the central part of Japan’s largest island, Honshu, since 2020.
“I am committed to continuing to carry out my duties from the dimensions of personal, collegial and communal engagement,” Nishihara told Anglican Communion News Service.
“Together with the laity and clergy of the NSKK, the College of Bishops of the NSKK and all the bishops of the worldwide Anglican Communion, I hope to devote my utmost efforts to advancing God’s mission as a Primate of the NSKK.”
Nishihara graduated from Kyoto University with a degree in metal science and technology, and then earned three degrees in theology from three Japanese universities, including a doctorate from Kwansei Gakuin University. A specialist in systematic theology and Anglican history, he taught on the faculty and served as an administrator at Rikkyo University, the NSKK’s largest university, from 1998 to 2021.
He currently represents the NSKK on the Anglican Consultative Council and the Anglican Communion Science Commission, and has served in the past on Anglican international ecumenical dialogues with Lutheran and Reformed churches. He is also president of the church-affiliated Rikkyo University and chairman of the board of the Associated Christian Schools of Japan. He was also a member of the World Council of Church’s Central Committee for six years.
Nishihara was installed in his new role during a special service at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Tokyo on September 1. He will serve at least until 2028, when the church’s next biennial synod meets. Most of the NSKK’s recent primates have served two or four years.
The NSKK (whose official name is the Holy Catholic Church of Japan), is one of the Anglican Communion’s smaller churches, with about 20,000 members (making it equivalent in size to the Diocese of Colorado). The NSKK has nearly 300 churches within 10 dioceses spread across Japan, and over 160 active clergy.
Despite its small size, the church operates about 200 educational, medical, and social welfare institutions, including nine universities, two theological seminaries, and two large hospitals, including St. Luke’s Hospital in Tokyo, widely considered one of Japan’s best. The Community of Nazareth, a religious order for women, has been active in the church for ninety years, with houses in Tokyo and Okinawa.
The NSKK was formed in 1882, uniting congregations that had been founded by missionaries sent from the Episcopal Church and the Church of England’s evangelical Church Mission Society. Its first native Japanese bishops were consecrated in 1923, and it came under their sole leadership in the 1930’s, when most foreign missionaries were forced to leave the country amid tensions that led to the Second World War.
The church has significant progressive-conservative divisions and the blessing of same-sex unions is permitted in some dioceses, while the church’s official teaching remains traditional. Same-sex marriage is illegal in Japan. Two of its ten dioceses also do not ordain women to the priesthood.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
AloJapan.com