Thomas Aquino Manyo Maeda was born in Tsuwasaki, Kami-Goto, in the prefecture of Nagasaki on 3 March 1949.

He studied at the Liceo Nanzan of Nagasaki and entered the Major Seminary Saint Sulpice in Fukuoka.

[citation needed] He participated in the peace movement in Hiroshima and campaigned for the beatification of those called "hidden Christians", 3,400 Nagasaki Christians—more than 600 died—exiled to scattered locations throughout Japan until the middle of the nineteenth century by the Japanese government.

[3] Pope Francis made Maeda a cardinal on 28 June 2018, assigning him the titular church of Santa Pudenziana.

[5] On 15 August 2023, Cardinal Maeda was named Archbishop of the newly erected Archdiocese of Osaka-Takamatsu.