From March 27 to 31, 2026, HE Metropolitan Ambrosios of Korea and Exarch of Japan conducted a pastoral visit to the cities of Tokyo and Nagoya, Japan.
On Saturday, March 28, within the framework of the Byzantine Studies Conference at Waseda University, Metropolitan Ambrosios had a private meeting and a cordial conversation with Professor Emerita Masako Kido (Kyoritsu Women’s University). Ms. Kido, a distinguished Hellenist, specializes in Byzantine Art, art history, and mosaic techniques. She was the head of the “Salamis Project” for the restoration of the frescoes (1735) in the Katholikon of the Holy Monastery of Panagia Faneromeni in Salamis and has studied and translated the “Interpretation of Painting Art” by Dionysius of Fourna.
On Sunday, March 29, Metropolitan Ambrosios celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Roman Catholic Convent of the Sisters of Divine Providence (Meguro-ku, Tokyo), with the participation of Orthodox faithful from Japan, Greece, Ukraine, and the United States. Following the Divine Liturgy, a brief reception was held in the monastery hall, during which Her Excellency, the Ambassador of Greece to Tokyo, Ms. Olga Kliamaki, spoke on the occasion of the anniversary of March 25, 1821.
Additionally, Metropolitan Ambrosios had a private meeting with three Japanese university professors who traveled from afar to meet him. All three are scholarly engaged with the Fathers of the Church:
- Professor Hidemi Takahashi (University of Tokyo) with the Syriac Fathers,
- Professor Rei Hakamada (Okayama University) with Saint Gregory Palamas,
- Professor Wataru Hakamada (Nanzan University) with Saint Dionysios the Areopagite.
On Monday, March 30, Metropolitan Ambrosios met in Nagoya with the Japanese Roman Catholic Bishop Michael Goro Matsuura, to whom he conveyed the wishes of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and thanked him for the provision of a church in Nagoya for the celebration of the Holy Services of Holy Saturday and the Sunday of Pascha.