The Eastern Christian
Churches
Orthodox Church: Autonomous
Churches – Orthodox Church of Japan
This church began in 1861 with the arrival in Japan
of a young Russian missionary priest-monk named Nicholas Kasatkin. Originally assigned as chaplain to the Russian
consulate in Hakodate, he soon turned his attention to missionary work among the Japanese,
baptizing his first converts in 1868. The
Russian Orthodox Holy Synod approved of his work and established an official mission to
Japan in 1871. Following the abrogation of the Japanese anti-Christian laws in 1873, the
mission quickly gained ground. Fr. Nicholas began to recruit clergy from the native
Japanese, and he oversaw the translation of the New Testament and many liturgical books
into Japanese. He was ordained a bishop in
1880, and by the time of his death in 1912, some 30,000 Japanese had been baptized into
the Orthodox faith. Because of his central
role in the foundation of the Orthodox Church in Japan, he was canonized in 1970.
Orthodoxy in Japan quickly became an indigenous
phenomenon, which enabled it to survive periods of hostility between Japan and Russia.
This process was completed with the installation
of Bishop Theodosius (Nagashima) as the first native Japanese Metropolitan in 1972.
As a result of canonical problems with the Russian
Orthodox Church in the period following the Bolshevik Revolution, the Orthodox Church in
Japan placed itself under the jurisdiction of the American Metropolia [see the OCA,
III.A.15] from 1945 to 1970. When the
Orthodox Church in America was declared autocephalous by the Moscow Patriarchate in 1970,
the OCA returned the Japanese Orthodox Church to the jurisdiction of Moscow, and Moscow
simultaneously declared the Japanese church autonomous. Consequently, the election of the head of the Japanese Orthodox Church must now be
confirmed by the Moscow Patriarchate. The
autonomy of the Japanese church has not been recognized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate and
most other Orthodox churches. Nevertheless,
Metropolitan Theodosius met with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I when he visited Japan
in April 1995.
Metropolitan Theodosius died on May 9,1999.
On May 6, 2000, an Extraordinary Local Council of
the Japanese Church elected Bishop Daniel (Nushiro) as its new primate. This election was subsequently confirmed by
Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and All Russia, who traveled personally to Japan to enthrone
the new Metropolitan on May 14, 2000. This
was the first time a Russian Patriarch had ever visited the country.
At present there are three dioceses (Tokyo, Kyoto
and Sendai) with 30 priests and five deacons serving approximately 150 worshipping
communities. Most of the parishes are located
on the northern island of Hokkaido. All the
clergy are now of Japanese origin and are trained at the church’s seminary in Tokyo.
LOCATION: Japan
HEAD: Metropolitan
Daniel (born 1938, elected 2000)
Title: Archbishop of Tokyo, Metropolitan of All Japan
Residence: Tokyo, Japan
MEMBERSHIP: 30,000
WEB SITE: http://www2.gol.com/users/ocj/
TheOrthodoxChurchinJapan.htm
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