It’s hard to believe when I saw it first in 1966, what it’s turned into,
it's just really an inspiration.
For decades, thousands of Latter- day Saints have felt the joy
and peace of worshiping in the Tokyo Japan Temple.
Every week, Nobuko Mida, sits down at the organ.
She’s preparing for the temple’s reopening
after its rededication in July.
Nobuko was a new member of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1975,
when President Spencer W. Kimball visited Japan to make
a historic announcement.
We therefore propose to you assembled here that we establish build
a temple in Tokyo, Japan,
for all of Asia.
Japanese Latter-day Saints rejoiced with the announcement.
Five years later, the temple was completed in 1980.
It was dedicated by President Kimball. The temple is all that we expected.
It will be a matter of joy to many people, for many years.
Nobuko determined to make temple worship a central part of her life.
She moved to live closer to the temple where she was later married.
She served as a temple organist until 2017,
when it closed for an extensive renovation.
Church members consider temples to be literal houses of the Lord.
Inside these sacred spaces, the highest sacraments of the faith
are performed to unite families for eternity.
Temple is my home, is my father’s home.
As Yoshikazu Yokoyama prepares for the temple’s rededication,
he’s reflecting on the faith of early Japanese Church members,
including those who traveled thousands of miles to attend
the Laie Hawaii Temple starting in 1965.
Every year for next 14 years,
Japanese Saints visited Hawaii Temple.
Latter-day Saints made many sacrifices to attend
the temple in Hawaii. They made a musical recording, sold pearls,
and some even sold their furniture to raise money.
President Kimball announced temple to build in Tokyo.
Of course, that was a special for all of us.
Having a temple of the Church in Tokyo also gave Latter-day Saints in nearby
countries access to temple worship.
Many Korean Saints came. Taiwan, Hong Kong,
Southeast Asian people came to Japan and Tokyo Temple to attend.
It’s the first temple in Asia, so it’s really a special place.
Conan Graham served as a full-time Church missionary in Japan in 1966.
He points to the temple site's history.
This is where the Church’s mission home was originally located.
If you go back to the sort of the beginning of the Church after
the war, Elder Matthew Cowley came and he dedicated the mission home.
And in his dedicatory prayer in 1949,
he said that someday there will be chapels, even temples in Japan.
Who would have believed that there would be not only a temple,
but temples in Japan?
After his mission, Conan returned to Japan in 1976,
this time as a young attorney.
Church leaders called on him to assist in the temple's construction.
That's how I got involved and how I got started handling the legal work
for the temple at that time.
Conan remembers facing several challenges during
the construction project, but he says the experience strengthened his faith.
The members were waiting for a temple, and I'm feeling the tremendous pressure,
you know, to get this thing done.
And I just had this, almost a voice come to me and say, Elder Grahams,
this is not your temple. This is my temple. This is my house.
And it will be built. It wasn't going to happen because of me.
It was going to be happen because it was the house of the Lord.
All I can say is I'm just so grateful that the Lord gave me
the opportunity to play a part.
The Tokyo Japan Temple became
the Church’s 18th operating temple. In 2004, a gilded angel Moroni
statue was added to the temple spire.
Today there is a growing list of nearly 300 temples around the world.
The Tokyo Japan Temple will serve nearly 100,000
Latter Day Saints in the area.