Minami-Alps, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, July 21, 2022
Photo: romanianorthodoxy.jp
The representation of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Japan has announced the establishment and organization of an Orthodox cemetery in Japan, where the faithful can be buried, rather than cremated, as is mandated in most of Japan.
The plot will have about 100 spaces, with a possibility of expansion, open to all Orthodox Christians regardless of their jurisdictional or ethnic affiliation, reports the Basilica News Agency, with reference to the representation in Japan.
The Holy Trinity Orthodox Cemetery will be built and organized in the town of Minami-Alps in the Yamanashi Prefecture, with the support of the Association of Funerals and in collaboration with the Fuji Temple. The project is conceived as a confession of faith in the area, given the secularist practice of cremation, or the practice of “tree burials,” of Buddhist origin.
“We wholeheartedly want to keep the tradition and teaching of the Orthodox Church intact and to have the possibility that here in Japan, the body can go to whence it came until the General Resurrection, that is, the earth,” emphasizes the representative of the Romanian Patriarchate in Japan Fr. Daniel Coriu.
The site of the future cemetery. Photo: romanianorthodoxy.jp
“Through this project, we want to give a testimony of faith in Japan,” Fr. Daniel said, “so that in the social mentality it wouldn’t just be the Muslim religion that wants burial, but that people would also hear the desire of the Orthodox Church to have the same practice, for theological and doctrinal reasons, entirely following Christ—its head and foundation.”
There are also plans to build a wooden chapel in the future cemetery.
Donations can be offered for the project on the site of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Japan.
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