TOKYO - THE beatification of 188 Japanese martyrs killed in the 17th century will send an important message to Christians in Japan today, a representative of Pope Benedict XVI said on Friday.

'They were martyred 400 ago but they still send us a very important message,' said Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, who will represent Pope Benedict XVI at the ceremony on Monday in the western port city of Nagasaki.

'One is the importance of the laic people of the church. Many of these people were not religious people but laic. This is an important message for the laic,' he told a press conference.

'It is a clear invitation for the Japanese Catholic laic people to live their faith deeply in everyday life.'

The 188 Japanese martyrs who will be beatified were mostly laypeople, or laic, who were tortured to death in the 17th century for practising their religion.

The ceremony comes more than a quarter of a century after the Japanese Catholic Church submitted a request to the Vatican for a beatification ceremony - a public act of blessing martyrs.

Organisers called for an overhaul of the Church's services in Japan to try to widen its appeal. The Catholic population makes up less than one per cent of the Japanese population.

'The Catholic Church in Japan is in a process of transformation,' said Mr Osamu Mizobe, who was the head of a beatification commission.

'The church in Japan needs to change to a Japanese church. It means Japanese Christians must find a way to start a new system, a new method to spread the faith,' he added.

As many as 30,000 Japanese people are believed to have been martyred for following Christianity, which was introduced to the country by the Portuguese Jesuit priest St Francis Xavier in 1549 but banned by the government for 250 years. -- AFP