Early Orthodox Christianity The first purpose-built Orthodox Christian church to open in Japan was the wooden
Russian Consulate chapel of the Resurrection of Christ, in Hakodate,
Hokkaidō, consecrated in October 1860. In July 1861, the young Russian
Hieromonk Nikolay (Kassatkin) (subsequently canonized and known as Nicholas of Japan), arrived in Hakodate to serve at the consulate as a priest. He became the first to learn the local language and customs sufficiently to spread Orthodox Christianity amongst the local populace. Though the
shōguns government at the time prohibited Japanese from converting to
Christianity, some locals who frequented the chapel did convert in 1864. One of Kassatkin's first converts was a
Samurai, named Sawabe( later, the first native Japanese Orthodox priest). These early converts acted as missionaries amongst their own families and community. While they were Kassatkin's first converts in Japan, they were not the first Japanese to become Orthodox Christians: some Japanese who had settled in Russia had converted to Orthodox Christianity earlier. On Kassatkin's initiative, the Russian Imperial government established the in 1870. Kassatkin's early approach to spreading Orthodox Christianity throughout Japan involved a degree of
indigenization. Kassatkin searched for the points of religious union between Orthodox Christianity and
Buddhism and
Shinto. It was envisioned by Kassatkin that the Orthodox Church would be the state religion of Japan, an institution to serve the state and to protect Japanese culture from
Western influence. Kassatkin moved to Tokyo in 1872; he remained in Japan for most of the time until his death in 1912, even during the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. He was consecrated bishop in the
Alexander Nevsky Lavra in
Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire in March 1880 (initially with the title of auxiliary bishop of
Reval; he became Archbishop of Tokyo and Japan from March 1906). Kassatkin travelled across Russia to collect funds for the construction of the
Orthodox Cathedral in Tokyo, which was inaugurated in
Kanda district in 1891 and went on to be known after him as Nikorai-do. Nikolay Kassatkin made Japanese translations of the
New Testament and of some liturgical books (
Lenten Triodion,
Pentecostarion,
Feast Services,
Book of Psalms,
Irmologion). By the end of 1890, as reported by Kassatkin, the Orthodox Church in Japan (the Russian Spiritual Mission to Japan) had 18,625 baptized faithful.
20th century The
Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905) created a politically difficult situation for the Orthodox Church in Japan. Although Kassatkin remained in Japan, he withdrew from public prayer as Orthodox liturgy required that prayers include blessings for the Japanese armed forces who at the time, were at war with Russia. Throughout the war, the Orthodox Church attended to the spiritual needs of 73,000 Russian POWs held prisoner by Japan. The POWs showed their gratitude by building a number of chapels for the Orthodox Church. Throughout this period, the church grew and by 1912, the Orthodox Church in Japan had some 33,017 members, organized into 266 congregations. After the
Russian Revolution of 1917, communications with and support from the Church in Russia (in the
USSR from 1922) diminished greatly. The
Japanese government had new suspicions about the Japanese Orthodox Church; in particular fearing that the Soviets used it as a cover for
espionage. The second bishop of Japan (from 1912),
Sergius (Tikhomirov), was one of a handful of
Russian émigré bishops who remained loyal to the USSR-based
Moscow Patriarchate (rather than supporting the
Yugoslavia-based
ROCOR). From the late 1920s communion with the Moscow Patriarchate automatically implied loyalty to the government of the USSR - the Japanese government according treated Metropolitan Sergius with suspicion, and he was forced to resign his position in September 1940. The
Great Kantō earthquake in 1923 did serious damage to the Japanese Orthodox Church. The headquarters, Nikorai-do, was destroyed and burnt, including its library with many valuable documents. Nikorai-do was rebuilt in 1929 thanks to contributions gathered from the faithful, whom metropolitan Sergius visited nationwide. The following year the Japanese Church largely switched to come under the
Metropolia′s jurisdiction, and would be governed by bishops sent from the U.S. by the
Metropolia until March 1972. Several Japanese youths who would study at the
Metroplia's
Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, then in
New York City, would subsequently become
leaders (
primates) of the Japanese Church. As the
Metroplia in the late 1960s gradually restored relations with the Moscow Patriarchate (whose external activity was fully controlled and guided by the Soviet government and specifically by the
KGB) with a view to obtaining
autocephaly (i. e. legitimate administrative independence), the Japanese Church transferred to
Russian Orthodox Church jurisdiction. On 10 April 1970, a few days prior to the death of Russian Patriarch
Alexius I, the Moscow Patriarchate
canonised Nikolay (Kassatkin) as part of a package deal of granting autocephaly to the OCA and re-establishing control over the Church of Japan. The
Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople strongly condemned the act of granting autocephaly by the Moscow Patriarchate as violating
canon law. In March 1972, Metropolitan Vladimir (Nagosky) left for the United States, and on March 19, 1972,
Theodosius (Nagashima) was elected the new primate. In 1973, the Orthodox Church of Japan became a member of the
World Council of Churches.
21st century In 2005 the first Orthodox Christian male monastic house of the Japanese Autonomous Orthodox Church opened in Tokyo near
Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do). The abbot of the monastic community, Hieromonk
Gerasimus (Shevtsov) of the
Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra, dispatched by the
Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate, arrived in Japan at the end of 2005. He is currently the
Archbishop of
Vladikavkaz and
Alania. ==Current administrative organization and statistics==