Religious organization in the urban space and territorial planning system (based on the example of the roman catholic church in Japan)

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Religious organizations, despite the processes of secularization that have involved modern society, continue to play a significant role in the socio-economic and political spheres of society's life [6]. Elements of religious infrastructure – temple and monastic complexes, are of great interest to tourists as objects of sightseeing. In the planning structure of settlements, they often act as architectural dominants, and the activities organized by the parish associations related to the implementation of social responsibility consolidate a large number of people around them. This correlates with the Japanese national idea of the New Strategy for Spatial Development of the 21st Centur y1, discussed in detail in the scientific work of I. L. Timonina [19]. Among other things, it declares the desire to ensure the maximum availability of social services for residents of all settlements.

It is due to economic and social significance of religious organizations at the country, regional and individual settlement levels, that aspects related to their location and functioning within specific territories are relevant for scientific understanding. This is especially true of cities, as residential areas, where both the population and the religious infrastructure are concentrated. The social and economic aspects of the functioning of religious organizations imply that they can be considered as objects of state and municipal management and cooperation. Experts have repeatedly argued about this in various aspects [7; 9; 21].

A detailed consideration of examples of foreign experience in this regard for Russia and the countries of the post-Soviet space has not only theoretical, but also practical significance. The continuity of traditions associated with the implementation of social functions by religious organizations and the location of temple buildings in urban areas was almost lost in the 20th century. At present, with no single methodological approach to develop- ping strategies for socio-economic development [1, р.115], but at the same time urban environment humanization problem, whose solution places an emphasis on objects of religious infrastructure, having become aggravated, it is necessary to search for new solutions for their inclusion into the structural and functional organization of cities. Moreover, this applies to both traditional religious organizations for the population of the country, as well as to those that are not numerous.

In the confessional space of Japan, the national Roman Catholic Church (RCCJ) is an example of the latter. The spread of Christianity in the territory of the present state began from the Latin Rite in the 16th century. The RCCJ has the most significant number of followers, leads in the number of temple buildings, and is the most socially active of all the non-traditional religious culture organizations of the Japanese population1. In addition, it is characterized by a formalized territorial-organizational structure, whose elements coincide with the units of administrative division. This fact greatly simplifies the application of regional studies methods, implying the involvement of statistical information for empirical calculations. Structural units of the regional level of the RCCJ possess the necessary characteristics to be used as an example for the implementation of representative scientific developments related to the location and functioning of religious organizations that are non-traditional for the culture of the population in the urban space planning system. But despite this fact, none of them acted as a testing ground for research in this respect.

This determined the aim of the research – to identify the features of infrastructure facilities location of a Christian religious organization in the urban territorial planning system in Japan in the context of the implementation of their social and economic role.

Theory

The start of the Russian research, directly related to the position of temple buildings in the urban territorial planning, was laid by the dissertation work of Yu. E. Sara-tovskaya [16]. Later, these issues were touched upon by K. Yu. Eidemiller [5] E. V. Barantseva [4], D. Yu. Astashov and A. S. Pozdnyakova [2] et al. Theoretical approaches to research related to identifying the role and place of temple buildings in the urban space were also considered [12].

Scientific works that reflect the specifics and nature of the social responsibility of religious organizations [18], as a manifestation of their influence in the public and economic spheres deserve special attention. In the context of the topic under consideration, they have a special theoretical and methodological significance when the content presents the forms and examples of its implementation at the level of individual cities [3].

Sacred urban areas have also been repeatedly given detailed attention to as objects of strategic planning: experts have considered major religious tourism destinations -Karbala, Lhasa, Jakarta districts [14; 13; 22;]. Christian temples in the cities of Japan also find scientific mention in this terms [11], albeit rare.

Religious organizations have repeatedly come into the focus of attention of domestic and foreign experts as elements of the territorial planning structure of residential areas that perform significant social and economic functions. But at the practical and theoretical levels, there is clearly a need to supplement their list with the study, which considers these issues in detail from a regional perspective. This is also related to the hypothesis of the study, which states that religious organizations, in addition to fulfilling their direct function, significantly complement the components of the social infrastructure and the historical and cultural dominants of the urban space with diversity, occupying a certain niche in its planning structure.

The presented work places an objectsubject emphasis on the urban parishes of the

Roman Catholic Church, located within the Saitama Diocese of the Tokyo Metropolis. This bishopric was chosen for more detailed consideration, as it is typical in terms of the number of parishes, area of territory and total populatio n2. Of the 59 Catholic churches located within its borders, all but three are located in cities. The exceptions are the parishes of Kusatsu and Nakanajo Townships (Gumma Prefecture), as well as the Nasu Township Nursing Home Temple (Tochigi Prefecture).

Data and methods

Empirical data reflecting the main characteristics of the RCCJ and its regional structures can be found in the reports posted on the official website of the religious organiza-tion2. General information regarding all components of the religious sphere is presented in Japanese in the documentation of the "Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs" and in the thematic collection of statistical "Religious yearbook" (the latest available data is dated 2019).

The collection of factual information related to the social responsibility of Saitama city parishes was carried out by analyzing the content of materials posted in their electronic resources. In the course of scientific data processing, in addition to methods of analysis and synthesis, the calculated ratios of Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and territorial concentration/diversification were used.

Research results

Japan is a secular state where the people are guaranteed freedom of religion. With regard to religious organizations, non-interference in their functional activities, equality and unbiased treatment for one or more of them are proclaimed. In fact, they have equal rights with other non-profit associations [17, р.75]. However, there are some peculiarities. The government provides an opportunity (but does not require) state certification to acquire the position of a religious organization with corporate status. In this case, tax incentives are provided based on the results of commercial activities, but the organizations are required to disclose the access to their assets in order to carry out supervision and investigation in case of violation of commercial activity rules.

In total, a little more than 215.5 thousand religious organizations were registered in Japan in 2019, led by Shinto and Buddhist organizations (87.4 and 84.3 thousand, respectively). In the list of Christian religious associations in the statistical database there is no clear division into confessions, in total they indicate 8585, with the RCCJ being the leader, which accounts for more than 82%. At the same time, 750 Catholic associations operating on the territory of Saitama are certified as corporate ones. The number of Christians in the population structure of Japan according to 2019 data is about 1.1%. Approximately half of their total number, i.e. about 0.5 million Japanese, account for the followers of the RCCJ.

The legal and property status of registered religious organizations, including Christian ones, is regulated by the articles of

Japanese Law No. 126 of April 1951. The regulatory legal act contains a long list of places used for the purpose of religious worship, which includes buildings of worship, service, household and other purposes, land plots on which religious ceremonies are held, certain foodstuffs are grown, as well as “historically closely related to the activities of a religious organization "and others [20, р.161]. Legislative conditions have been created that allow religious organizations to own them, as well as other property, and to maintain this property.

In church-administrative terms, the RCCJ is subdivided into 16 bishops, 3 of which have the status of archdioceses (metropolises) and include 4 or 5 dioceses. The latter coincide within the boundaries with several territorial units of the regional level. So, within the diocese of Saitama, in addition to the same name (20), the prefectures of Ibaraki (11), Tochigi (14) and Gumma (14) are located (Note: brackets represent the number of Catholic parishes by prefecture for 2021). Table 1 presents data reflecting the most general quantitative characteristics of the territories that form the Metropolis of Tokyo of the RCC.

Table 1 – Dioceses of Metropolitan Tokyo of the RCC for 2019

Diocese	Area, sq.km	Population of the diocese	Number of Catholics	Share of Catholics in the population of the diocese, %	Number of parishes	Clergymen
						Japanese	Foreigners
Niigata	33 545	4 354 915	7 200	0,165	37	19	11
Sapporo	83 424	5 304 413	16 106	0,304	59	40	18
Saitama	22 666	14 279 795	21 516	0,151	59	19	11
Sendai	45 987	6 747 002	9 794	0,145	57	26	24
Yokohama	28 220	15 850 718	55 251	0,349	91	63	26
Total :	213 842	46 536 843	109 867	0,236	303	257

Over the decades of the 21st century, the number of parishes of the religious organization in question has remained stable or slightly increased, which indicates its continued cultural and social role in Japanese soci-ety2.

About 7% of the parishes are located in the special cities of Japan (Special cities 特例 市 (tokureisi) – cities of Japan with a population over 200,000 people) – Kawaguchi, Tokorozawa Soka, Kasukabe, Kumagaya. This status is assigned when the population exceeds 200 thousand people. Special cities are delegated powers of prefectures in the field of healthcare, environment, urban planning and development.

Another part of the parishes of the RCCJ diocese under consideration are located in such cities as Saitama, Kawagoe, Maebashi, etc. with an area of more than 100 sq. km and a population of over 300 thousand people, which gives them the status of central cities and adds them to the list of powers prefectures of finance and early childhood education (Central cities中核市 (tu:kakusi) – cities of Japan with a population of 300 000 – 500 000 citizens, and area over 100 km²).

Several Japanese cities located within the diocese (Saitama, Iruma, Mito, Utsunomiya, etc.) that have Catholic parishes have established sister city relations. Moreover, for the most part they are related to large cities of European countries, where Catholicism is the predominant denomination (Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Poland, and Hungary) or is widespread (Canada, the USA). Traditionally, in addition to social and cultural interaction, sister cities constantly exchange experience in solving the problems of urban organization, planning and design that are faced by representatives of authorities and organizations.

The functional role of the parishes of the RCCJ in the cities of Japan is manifested not only at the level of ensuring the implementation of the law on freedom of religion. Their activities in the field of social responsibility are essential. Thus, the Diocese of Saitama oversees the work of 18 Catholic kindergartens, allocated among the cities of its prefectures as follows: Saitama - 6 (Saitama city - 4, Soka city, Fujimino city); Ibaraki - 3 (Mito, Chikusei, Tsitiura); Tochigi - 7 (Kanuma city, Nusukarasuyami city, Nikko-2 city, Otawara city, Utsunomiya city - 2); Gunma -2 (Oizumi city, Takasaki city). Their capacity is from 60 to 150 people [9].

The system of functioning of preschool educational institutions in Japan involves paying fee for their attendance. Moreover, this applies to both private and public kindergartens. The amount of the fee is set by the municipal authorities or the educational institution. Depending on the list of services provided, kindergartens in Japan are divided into 2 types – "hoikuen" (保育園 (hoikuen) – the term for a nursery school in Japan, involves only the teacher’s looking after the children) and "yo: tien" (幼稚園 (yo:tien) – a term for an educational institution for preschool children in Japan, in addition to looking after the children , the intellectual and physical development of children is provided). In the first case, children aged 0 to 6 years are accepted for a day period. For a child to be accepted a document is required, stating that both parents are officially employed and their working day is over 4 hours.

Yo:tien accepts children from 3 years old to 6 years old. Such institutions do not work more than 4-5 hours a day (usually from 10:00 to 14:00). Such kindergartens are much more expensive than hoikuens, since the costs of teaching materials, uniforms, maintenance of the premises, meals and a bus are paid separately.

Diocesan preschools refer to both types. The cost of attending hoikuen kindergartens in Saitama ranges from 10 to 20 thousand Japanese yen a month, depending on the child’s age (the older the child, the lower the payment). In yo:tien, tuition fees range from 20,000 to 40,000 yen a month. A babysitting service is available outside the regular working hours of the kindergarten for an additional fee. In general, the fee for Catholic kindergartens is somewhat lower than a fee for similar private or municipal institutions.

Junior and senior classes of the «Utsuno-miya Kaisei» Catholic Women's Academy, operate in the central city of Tochigi Prefectur e3. The Academy provides high quality education, including tuition in Europe and the USA.

Another diocesan institution is Ura Kazuaki no Hoshi Girls' Junior and High School located in Saitama. Upon admission, it is necessary to make a cash contribution worth 50 thousand Japanese yen for the further distribution of these funds in favor of one of the charitable foundations of the RCC. The overall number of students at schools in the year 2021 was a bit over 350 people3.

Diocesan orphanages are located in Ashikaga (Tochigi) and Takasaki (Gumma). The former accounts for 45 children aged 2 to 18, whereas the latter – 50 children.

An interesting social project of the Diocese of Saitama, the Marco House Indepen- dence Support Centre, operates in the centre of Tochigi Prefecture. It provides accommodation and assistance to 8 boys and girls aged 15 to 20 who have completed their compulsory education and want to work independently from their parents or guardians, but who experience difficulties with socialization.

Catholic educational institutions of all types position the services they provide to a wide audience, including not only religious followers. This enables to speak about a significant manifestation of the role of the RCCJ in the formation of a network of educational infrastructure in the cities of the Saitama diocese.

In addition to secondary, higher educational institutions and kindergartens, the list of institutions of the RCCJ providing various types of assistance to the population includes orphanages, nursing homes, hospitals and polyclinics (Table 2). Note: High school and high school classes are taken into account in each of the two educational institutions mentioned above.

Table 2 - Social assistance institutions of the Metropolitan Tokyo of RCCJ, 2019 2

Diocese	Religious homes (including missionary institutions)	Medical institutions (hospitals; clinics)	Kindergartens	Middle and high school educational institutions	Orphanages and shelters
Niigata	10	0	17	3	3
Sapporo	21	0	5	13	5
Saitama	31	1	18	4	3
Sendai	24	2	18	18	7
Yokohama	64	8	21	33	9
Total:	150	11	79	71	27

Of the two nursing homes that the Diocese of Saitama oversees, only one, St. Joseph’s, located within the city limits of Karasuyama, is owned by them. It has been operating since 1960 and can accommodate 44 people simultaneously. Additionally, 6 beds are provided for those who require individual assistance. Full board at this nursing home involves a monthly payment of 120.1 thousand yens, and the provision of special care – 360 thousand yens.

A wide variety of social responsibility activities are carried out at individual parishes of the RCCJ. For example, financial support is provided to people who find themselves in a difficult life situation, as well as free consultations of specialists - lawyers, psychologists are organized.

Immigrants are traditionally consolidated in Christian parishes, so a significant part of the work is focused on their needs related to the procedure for obtaining a residence permit for foreigners, participation in court hearings, etc. Language and legal advisory support is provided in this field. The Catholic Parish International Support Center

«Open House», located in the city of Saitama, is primarily focused on providing these types of assistance.

To determine the degree of accessibility of the parishes of the RCCJ for those wishing to visit them for religious, cultural, educational or other purposes, territorial concentration ratio was calculated using the following formula (1):

(1) TCR=X^-^)

where Yi is the number of parishes in a separate diocese of the RCCJ; Y – total number of parishes of the RCCJ; Si is the area of a separate diocese of the RCCJ; S – area of Japan.

The closer the effective value of TCR is to one, the higher the concentration of objects in the territory. It turns out that with an indicator equal to 0.35, taking into account the fact that Catholicism is not a traditional religion of the Japanese, whose mentality implies a high barrier to borrowing elements from other cultures, it can be concluded that the parishes of the RCCL are distributed fairly evenly to be accessible to the public attendance.

Table 3 – Evenness of distribution of Catholic parishes across Japan territory, 2019 2

Diocese	Quantity if parishes in the Diocese Area	Area of diocese, sq.km	The ratio of the diocese number of parishes to the total number of parishes	The ratio of the diocese area to the total area	Inequality ratio
Sapporo	59	83424	0,278454	0,061	-0,159
Niigata	37	33545	0,038542	0,089	-0,050
Sendai	57	45987	0,059375	0,122	-0,062
Hiroshima	47	31922	0,048958	0,084	-0,036
Takamatsu	28	18803	0,029167	0,049	-0,021
Oita	27	14076	0,028125	0,037	-0,009
Nagoia	58	28419	0,060417	0,075	-0,015
Saitama	59	22666	0,061458	0,059	0,001
Kioto	49	18095	0,051042	0,048	0,003
Yokohama	91	28220	0,094792	0,075	0,020
Fukuoka	66	14837	0,06875	0,039	0,029
Osaka	79	15031	0,082292	0,039	0,046
Kagoshima	70	9187	0,072917	0,024	0,049
Naha	21	2281	0,021875	0,006	0,016
Tokio	80	7352	0,083333	0,019	0,064
Nagasaki	132	4131	0,1375	0,010	0,127
Total:	901	377976	-	-	-

Table 4 – Correlation of quantitative indicators of Catholicism followers and the religious infrastructure of the RCCJ, 2019 2

Diocese	Number of Catholics (factorial item X)	Number of parishes (resultant item Y)	Item X rank	Item Y rank	Rank difference squared ( di2 )
Nagasaki	59642	132	2	1	1
Yokohama	55251	91	3	2	1
Tokio	97987	80	1	3	4
Osaka	49080	79	4	4	0
Kagoshima	8940	70	12	5	49
Fukuoka	30197	66	5	6	1
Saitama	21516	59	7	7	0
Sapporo	16106	59	10	7	9
Nagoia	27230	58	6	8	4
Sendai	9794	57	11	9	4
Niigata	7200	57	13	10	9
Kioto	17954	49	9	11	4
Hiroshima	20079	47	8	12	16
Takamatsu	4441	28	16	13	9
Oita	5971	27	15	14	1
Naha	6219	21	14	15	1

At the same time, it is obvious that in the regions with a higher concentration of parishes relative to the area of the territory, the influence of religious institutions should manifest itself to a greater extent, involving a more significant part of the population. Accordingly, a hypothesis can be made that with a larger number of Catholics in the population structure, a larger number of parishes is required to evenly distribute the load on parishes. At the same time, there is an inverse relationship between these features: regions with a large number of RCCJ religious institutions attract a potentially larger number of Catholics. To substantiate the indicated hypothesis, the Spearman correlation coefficient was calculated (Table 4) using formula (2):

cs = 1

e^dt² n(n²-1)

where di is the difference between the values of the ranks of the factorial item and resultant item n is the number of indicators (ranks) of the studied series.

The value of the rank correlation coeffi- cient, equal to 0.83, turned out to be ranging from 0.75 to 0.95, indicating the presence of a close direct relationship between the resultant (number of Catholics in the diocese) and factorial (number of parishes of the RCCJ) items. But since the number of studied indi- cators in the statistical series is less than 30, in this case it becomes necessary to confirm this conclusion.

For this purpose, the obtained result Cs is compared with the value of the correlation error (σ), which is calculated according to the formula (3):

(3)σ =

1-Cs2 n°'S

where Cs – correlation coefficient of

Spearman's ranks; n is the number of indicators (ranks) of the studied series (number of observations).

σ =

1-0,832 16°'s

0,076

If — >3, the correlation coefficient is CT considered significant, and the correlation is considered real.

|Cs|

о

|0,83| 0,076

10,94

The high value of the rank correlation coefficient proves the reality of the relationship between the selected indicators, i.e., the quantitative value of Catholicism followers and the parishes of the RCCJ are interdependent. There is no negative dynamics in this regard, so we can say that the cult infrastructure of the religious organization in question plays a significant social role for its followers and other categories of citizens in the settlements of Japan where its facilities are located.

The validity of this statement can be traced using the example of the Catholic parishes of the cities of Saitama. All of them are located within walking distance from the nearest public transport railway stations (from 3 to 25 minutes’ walk). The exceptions are Catholic churches in the city of Kamisu and Takasaki (Ibaraki Prefecture). But they are not difficult to reach from the nearest railway stations using public bus transport3.

Assessing the social role of Catholic religious infrastructure objects, we can’t help mentioning them from the point of view of participation in providing an accessible urban environment for people with limited mobility, which is a topical current problem in Russia [10] and foreign countries [8].

Most of the urban temples of the Diocese of Saitama (from 57 to 75% in prefectures) are provided with sloping ramps that duplicate the stairs at the entrance, as well as toilets for the disabled. The worst situation in this regard is in Tochigi Prefecture, where 6 out of 14 Catholic parishes located on its territory (Ashikago, Nikko, Nasukarasuyama, Kanuma, Sano, Mooka) do not have the appropriate equipment. The leader is Saitama Prefecture, which takes into account the needs of limited mobility groups in the 15 out of its 20 city temples. The exceptions are the parishes of Geda, Asaka, Chichibu, Tokorozawa, Higashimatsuyami [9].

Another important function of the elements of the planning structure of the urban space planning structure elements, which is especially topical for Japan [15], and is partially performed by some parishes of the RCC, is the arrangement of recreational areas with green spaces. Most of the buildings of Catholic churches are located inside residential areas, but some of them act as an architectural component of parks or green urban areas. These include the arrival of the Heart of Jesus in Urawa. Several examples can also be given, when the initiative to improve the territory under the jurisdiction of a religious organization is aimed at creating a green recreational zone, albeit a small one in terms of the area. This function is performed by the Catholic parishes of the cities of Shibukawa, Tatebayashi, Fujioka (Gumma Prefecture); Ashikaga, Sano, Nikko (Tochigi), Tsukuba, Naka (Ibaraki) and others. In most cases, the urban area the temples are located in, prevents the formation of adjacent recreational zones, but as far as possible, parishes develop small green spaces and take care of them.

The implementation of the parish social functions is significantly affected by the type of its urban area location. The key three of them, based on such criteria as architectural and construction characteristics, connection with the elements of the urban structure, adjacent zone characteristics, were defined and identified within the framework of the author's typology, presented in the following table (Table 5).

Table 5 – Typology of location of the religious infrastructure of the RCCJ in the urban area of the Diocese of Saitama

Typology of location                 \                Prefecture	Saitama	Totigi	Ibaraki	Gumma
Temples located in the central part, as well as performing the role of architectural and historical and cultural dominants of the city center or its district	6	5	0	1
Temples located in landscape and/or recreational areas	1	3	10	3
Temples located inside residential areas	13	5	0	10
Temples located on the outskirts of the city (outside residential areas)	0	1	1	0
Accessible social       Ramps	16	8	7	8
environment          Toilets for limited abilities people	14	7	6	8

The parish church of the city of Kamisu (Ibaraki) turned out to be outside the residential urban areas, and therefore did not enter into any of the selected categories.

Thus, for the most part, the objects of the religious infrastructure of the RCCJ are included in the urban street development, constituting a low-rise residential area of the 2nd category. But some of them, located in large cities, play the role of historical and architectural dominants of urban areas and can be included into display objects on sightseeing and educational tourist routes. These include the Catholic churches of the cities of Saitama, Iruma, Kazo, Kawagoe, Kumagaya, Soka (Saitama Prefecture), as well as Kanuma, Oyama, Tochigi, Utsunomiya (2) (Tochigi Prefecture). The architecture of the buildings of the parishes in Maebashi and Tatebayashi (Gumma) are clearly distinguished by their aesthetic appeal.

Catholic temples in the cities of Japan are an important part of their social and economic significance.