Pope Francis arrives in Japan

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 23, ARMENPRESS. Pope Francis arrived in Japan on November 23, the second leg of a week-long Asian trip whose main aim is to bring an anti-nuclear message to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, the world’s only cities to suffer atomic bombing in wartime, Reuters reports.

Francis, a determined anti-nuclear campaigner who will read a message on nuclear weapons in Nagasaki, will also meet survivors of the March 11, 2011 nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

Another goal of his visit is to encourage the Catholic community in Japan, where just about 1 percent of the population identifies as Christian, about half of them Catholic.