The Sapporo Japan Temple is the 151st operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 3rd temple built in Japan after the Tokyo Japan Temple (1980) and Fukuoka Japan Temple (2000).
The beautiful white Sapporo Japan Temple—designed with inspiration from Asian architecture—will anchor a complex of supporting buildings including an Arrival Center, a Patron Housing Facility, a Temple Missionary Housing Facility, a combined home and office for the Japan Sapporo Mission, and space for a future meetinghouse. The captivating grounds offer the beauty and mystique of the Orient, featuring distinctive trees and plants, large landscaping stones, and an enchanting pond and waterfall spanned by a pedestrian bridge.
Temple History[]
On May 2, 2010, the location of the Sapporo Japan Temple was announced as a large parcel of land on the Atsubetsu River, adjacent to the campus of Hokusei Gakuen University. A charming, well-known pedestrian bridge decorated with colorful circles and supported by a soaring, graceful arch—known locally as "Rainbow Bridge"—crosses the river at the north edge of the temple site. The land was once occupied by the Shin Sapporo Golf Center and offers convenient access from the Hokkaidō Expressway and the Ooyachi Subway Station.3
Missionaries of the Church first arrived in Sapporo in 1905. By 1924, the mission had closed, leaving behind a handful of members—most of whom could not be located following World War II. When the mission reopened in 1948, missionaries returned to Hokkaidō, and the Church began to grow. As early as the 1960s, Hokkaidō members held to a belief that a temple would be built among them one day as described at the groundbreaking ceremony by Elder Koichi Aoyagi in a reflection of his own missionary experience there: "I was a missionary here in Hokkaidō 46 years ago. The members in the Sapporo Branch back then said to me, 'Someday we will build a temple in Sapporo.' I am happy that this day has come."6
On July 17, 1949, Elder Matthew Cowley made the first prophecy regarding the temples of Japan during the dedicatory services for the old Tokyo mission home—now the site of the Tokyo Japan Temple. Elder Harrison Ted Price, a missionary serving in the Northern Far East Mission, recorded in his journal: "In this prayer, he told of countless blessings from the Lord that have been enjoyed here to date, and went on to prophesy—'there will someday be many church buildings—and even TEMPLES built in the land.'"7
Temple District[]
The Sapporo Japan Temple serves members from 3 stakes and 2 districts headquartered in Japan:
- Aomori Japan District
- Asahikawa Japan Stake
- Kushiro Japan District
- Sapporo Japan Stake
- Sapporo Japan West Stake
Presidents[]
- Yutaka Onda 2019–
- Bin Kikuchi 2016–2019
See Also[]
References[]
Sapporo Japan Temple[]
The Sapporo Japan Temple is the 151st operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the 3rd temple built in Japan after the Tokyo Japan Temple (1980) and Fukuoka Japan Temple (2000). The captivating grounds offer the beauty and mystique of the Orient, featuring distinctive trees and plants, large landscaping stones, and an enchanting pond and waterfall spanned by a pedestrian bridge.