Orthodox Cemetery with burial – Minami Alps, Yamanashi

As Orthodox Christians, bearing the name of Christ (Christian comes from Christ), following Christ is our main responsibility. We are born with Christ in Baptism, we unite with Christ through His Holy Sacraments, and we follow Christ through His holy commandments. The Christian life is a continual imitation of the life of Christ. If Christ took flesh from the Virgin Mary, body made of clay (not ashes), if He lived through and with this body, died with Him, was buried with the body in the tomb, rose with the body, and ascended into glory to heaven, then the body in the orthodox Christian teaching has the same importance as the soul.

That is why, as Christians and followers of Christ through our life in the Church, we take care of the veneration of our body both during our the time of our life (through the sanctification which it receives in the Church via the Holy Mysteries and through a pure and ascetic life) and at the end of it, at the moment of transition to the eternal. Given the significance of the body in the teachings of the Orthodox Church, the secularist practices of cremation or burial at tree roots – conceptions whose origin is Buddhist or otherwise pagan – are completely against this honor that the body has in the Church. Thus, with all our heart we want to keep untouched the tradition and teaching of the Orthodox Church and to enjoy the possibility that here as well, in Japan, at the moment of death the body go “where it was taken from, until the public Resurrection”, that is, into the earth.

Through this project we also aim to give a testimony of faith in Japan, so that the social mentality record not only the case of the Muslim religion as one that seeks proper burial, but rather so that Japanese society also become aware of the desire of the Orthodox Church – that totally follows Christ, its head and its foundation – to abide by the same practice, founded in its theological and doctrinal reasons.
As a result, the Romanian Orthodox Church in Japan announces the founding and organization of an Orthodox cemetery with burial, for all members of the Orthodox Church regardless of their jurisdictional or ethnic affiliation.

In cooperation with an organization called “The Inhumation Association” and the Fusai Temple in Minami-Alps, we are planning to build an orthodox graveyard for inhumation called “Holy Trinity”, in Minami – Alps, Yamanashi Prefecture. Currently the land plot accommodates about 100 graves, but the number can be further extended. We also plan to erect a small wooden chapel to serve this cemetery.

Those who wish to support our project or to buy a burial place can do so by filling in the donation form created for this purpose and posted on the “Donations” page of this website:

https://romanianorthodoxy.jp/donations/cemetery-with-burial-in-minami-alps-yamanashi/