Japanese Cemetery

The Japanese Benevolent Society of California (Jikeikai) was founded in 1901 with a $10,000 grant from Emperor Meiji of Japan. The organization purchased a 2-acre site in Colma and held an opening ceremony for the Japanese Cemetery on March 17, 1903, after San Francisco passed a law forbidding new burials within city limits. The cemetery serves as a non-denominational burial ground where Japanese citizens and Japanese Americans could be interred. In 1906, the Japanese government granted additional funding to support the cemetery. An additional 1.5 acres of land was purchased in 1995, and the cemetery now contains more than 2,000 graves and over 1,000 niches in the Columbarium, with over 5,000 souls resting there. The cemetery is notable for being the resting place of three sailors from the Kanrin Maru, the ship that brought the first Japanese Embassy to the U.S., along with other notable Japanese and Japanese Americans in Northern California. Since 1951, the organization has held annual Community Memorial Services on Memorial Day in May under joint sponsorship of the Japanese American Religious Federation. The organization currently operates the cemetery grounds while working to restore its operational licensing status with the State of California.