Resting a short distance from one of the nation’s busiest port cities, the Fukuoka Japan Temple stands as a spiritual haven in southern Japan.
It is the 88th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is the second temple to be built in Japan. The first temple in Japan, the Tokyo Japan Temple, was dedicated in 1980.
The Fukuoka Japan Temple is located on the northern end of Kyushu, an island approximately 620 miles southwest of Tokyo. It serves Church members on the Japanese islands of Kyushu, Shikoku and the southern region of Honshu. The Fukuoka Japan Temple is nestled along a verdant hillside on half an acre adjoining the enchanting landscape of Fukuoka City Botanical Garden and Zoo. The property the temple was constructed on is significant to the Japanese Saints — one of the first Mormon Church buildings on the island of Kyushu stood on the same site before the temple was built.
The edifice, constructed of white and grey granite, gleams majestically against Japan’s natural beauty. At 10,700 square feet, the Fukuoka Japan Temple is similar in design and size to several other Mormon temples built in the late 1990s and early 2000s. During this period, most temples were built on a smaller scale than previous temples in an effort to build more temples than would have been possible if the temples were larger. This allowed temples to be available to more Church members throughout the world than ever before.
The Fukuoka Japan Temple contains a baptistry; instruction rooms; sealing rooms, where marriages are solemnized; and a celestial room, which symbolizes eternal life with God.
Below the temple ordinance rooms, a lower level houses mission offices and living quarters for the temple president.
In 1901, Heber J. Grant of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles dedicated Japan for missionary work. Missionary efforts in Japan were discontinued for a time, but missionaries returned to the area after World War II. Since that time, Church membership has grown from its humble beginnings to a thriving community of Saints. When the first temple in Japan was announced in 1975, President Spencer W. Kimball said, “We will build a temple to our God in Japan for the people of Asia. The first temple in this eastern land will be built in Tokyo, and we shall hope that it will serve the needs of the Saints in Asia until we can grow large enough and strong enough to build other temples in other areas in this land.”1
Church leaders announced plans to construct the Fukuoka Japan Temple on May 7, 1998, and this news was received with great joy by local Church members. Many saw it as direct fulfillment of President Kimball’s words over two decades earlier.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Fukuoka Japan Temple on March 20, 1999, with services led by Elder L. Lionel Kendrick of the Seventy. On this occasion, Elder Kendrick remarked that it was “the beginning of great blessings that will come. … These blessings come not only to the members of the Church but also to all those who live in the bounds of the temple district.” He also explained why temples are of such great importance to Mormons: “The temple is a place where sacred things occur. It serves many purposes and promotes great spiritual experiences for all who enter therein spiritually prepared for those experiences.”2
Before the Fukuoka Japan Temple was dedicated, the public was invited to attend an open house. More than 4,800 guests took the opportunity to tour the temple’s interior and grounds, including many government dignitaries. Of the experience, one visitor remarked, “Before I came to the open house, I determined that I would not change my preconceived ideas about this Christian church. As I walked through the temple, I repeated this to myself over and over. But when I entered the celestial room, I felt my preconceptions change.”3
President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Fukuoka Japan Temple on June 11, 2000 — an uncommonly warm and pleasant day during Japan’s rainy season. Approximately 3,000 Church members participated in the temple’s four dedicatory sessions. In his dedicatory prayer, President Hinckley petitioned, “Bless Thy Saints of this great nation. Magnify them, inspire them, bless them among the millions of this land that by the virtue of their lives they may stand as a city upon a hill whose light cannot be hid.”4 Japanese Saints rejoiced over the completion of a temple in their midst. Ryosho Nakamura, a Church leader in Kyushu, remarked, “When a temple was announced for Fukuoka, it was beyond our expectations. … On the day of the dedication, we felt strongly that the Fukuoka temple is truly the house of the Lord. Feelings of joy, gladness, and gratitude filled our hearts.”5
1 “Temple Plan Thrills Members,” Church News, Aug. 23, 1975, 5, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19750816&id=ldUeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MlsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4636,5542163
2 Takuji Okata, “Japan’s Second Temple, in Fukuoka, Celebrates Groundbreaking,” Mar. 27, 1999, http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/articles/35435/Japans-second-temple-in-Fukuoka-celebrates-groundbreaking.html
3 “Four Temples Dedicated,” Ensign, Sept. 2000, https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/09/news-of-the-church/four-temples-dedicated
4 Fukuoka Japan Temple dedicatory prayer, in Church News, June 7, 2000, http://www.ldschurchnewsarchive.com/temples/38/Fukuoka-Japan.html
5 “Four Temples Dedicated,” Ensign, Sept. 2000, https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/09/news-of-the-church/four-temples-dedicated