Minami-Alps, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, November 3, 2026
Photo: basilica.ro
The first Divine Liturgy has been served at the wooden church in Japan’s first Orthodox cemetery, where the faithful can be buried rather than cremated.
The Liturgy was served Sunday at the church in Minami-Alps, Yamanashi Prefecture. The church sits within a cemetery that Romanian Orthodox Christians founded and opened to people of all nationalities who want to be laid to rest according to their faith.
After about six months of work, the church is now in use for services, though some work is yet to be completed, reports the Basilica News Agency.
“We hope this little church will last until the end of the ages. Through the Divine Liturgy, sanctification pours out on the surroundings as well, blessing the place, those who live here and those who sleep the sleep of death in the neighboring cemetery,” the Romanian parish said.
The Romanian Orthodox Church announced the cemetery project in 2022. Burial is rare in Japan, where cremation is mandated in most of the country. The plot has about 100 spaces, with room to expand, and is open to all Orthodox Christians regardless of jurisdiction or ethnicity. The project was conceived as a confession of faith in a place where cremation is the secular norm, as is the Buddhist-rooted practice of “tree burials.”
“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,” Fr. Daniel Coriu, the Romanian Patriarchate’s representative in Japan, said at the time.
Fr. Daniel also said the project is meant to give a testimony of faith in Japan, so that people would hear that the Orthodox Church, too, desires burial, for theological and doctrinal reasons.
Work on the church will continue in the coming months. The chandeliers and a painted cross are to be brought from Romania, and new work is planned for the exterior.
The parish wants a consecration service to take place once the work is done, which is expected in 2027.
The foundation stone of the Maramureș-style church was consecrated in March of this year. The wooden church was built in Romania, then taken apart and shipped to Japan to be put back together.
The parish in Minami-Alps is under the protection of St. Lazarus the Righteous, who was raised from the dead on the fourth day, and St. Dimitrie the New, the patron saint of Bucharest.
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