Reservations are now available online to tour the Okinawa Japan Temple during the public open house via reservations.churchofjesuschrist.org. It is one of a half dozen temples with either ongoing public open houses or ones that will start in the next month.
The public open house will be from Saturday, Sept. 23, through Saturday, Oct. 7, excluding Sundays, and reservations, which are recommended, are available from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The free tour begins with a short video overview and short walking tour through the temple. Comfortable shoes and modest dress are recommended and the temples are wheelchair accessible. The tours generally last about an hour.
After a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is built or has had an extensive renovation, it is opened for public tours prior to being dedicated or rededicated. After the dedication or rededication, Church members with temple recommends can enter to perform sacred ordinances.
The two-story, 10,000-square-foot temple is on a half-acre site at 7-11, Matsumoto, Okinawa Shi, in Okinawa-ken, Japan, with the Okinawa Islands about 600 miles southwest of the Fukuoka Japan Temple. The other two of the Asian country’s four temples are the Sapporo Japan Temple and the Tokyo Japan Temple.
A temple-patron waiting area was part of the Okinawa temple construction projection; it is next to an adjacent existing meetinghouse that was completed in 2013.
Elder Gary E. Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the temple on Nov. 12. Elder Stevenson served as a young full-time missionary in the Japan Fukuoka Mission and later as president of the Japan Nagoya Mission. As a General Authority Seventy, he served as counselor and president of the Church’s Tokyo-based Asia North Area.
The Okinawa Japan Temple was announced in the April 2019 general conference by President Russell M. Nelson. The groundbreaking ceremony was Dec. 5, 2020, with Elder Takashi Wada, a General Authority Seventy and then Asia North Area president, presiding and offering the dedicatory prayer on the site and construction process.
Ongoing or upcoming temple open houses
All times are in the local time zone of the temple.
- The Moses Lake Washington Temple begins its open house phase this week, starting with a media day on Monday, July 31. The public open house is Friday, Aug. 4, through Saturday, Aug. 19, excluding Sundays. Reservations are encouraged and available online to tour the Moses Lake temple during the public open house via reservations.churchofjesuschrist.org.
Tours start at 10 a.m., and the last tours start at 8 p.m. Pacific Time. The temple is on Yonezawa Boulevard between Division Street and Road K NE, across the street from Yonezawa Park. Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the temple Sept. 17. Interior images were released on Monday, July 31.
- The public open house for the Brasília Brazil Temple began Saturday, Aug. 12, and runs through Saturday, Sept. 2, excluding Sundays, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The temple is at SGAN 612, Lote C, Asa Norte, Brasília. See reservations.churchofjesuschrist.org for open house information; a reservation system isn’t being used. It will be dedicated Sunday, Sept. 17, by Elder Neil L. Andersen. Interior images were released Tuesday, Aug. 1.
Other scheduled temple open houses
- In advance of the St. George Utah Temple’s rededication on Sunday, Dec. 10, the public open house will run from Friday, Sept. 15, through Saturday, Nov. 11, excluding Sundays and Saturday, Sept. 30, for the October 2023 general conference.
- The Orem Utah Temple public open house will be Friday, Oct. 27, through Saturday, Dec. 16, excluding Sundays and Thanksgiving Day. The Orem temple will be dedicated on Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024.
Information about tour reservations will be available on reservations.ChurchofJesusChrist.org when it’s available.
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