St. Andrew's Cathedral, Anglican cathedral in Shiba Koen, Japan

St. Andrew's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Tokyo Diocese of the Anglican Church in Japan, on elevated ground at Shiba Koen south of the Imperial Palace. The present building, dating from 1996, stands on the site of the 1879 church and near Tokyo Tower. Its grounds also hold St. Alban's Church, a wooden structure by Antonin Raymond consecrated in 1956 for the English-speaking congregation.

The Rev. Alexander Croft Shaw, a Canadian missionary, founded St. Andrew's Church in 1879; its first red-brick, neo-Gothic building, designed by Charles Alfred Chastel de Boinville, was dedicated on June 4, 1879. That building was destroyed in the 1894 earthquake and replaced by a wooden church designed by Josiah Conder. The present cathedral dates from 1996, after the earlier buildings were lost in the 1945 incendiary bombing.

The cathedral's name comes from St Andrew, patron saint of Scotland, chosen because founder Alexander Croft Shaw's family was Scottish. English-language worship has been held on this site since 1879; today St Alban's Church, designed by Antonin Raymond and consecrated in 1956, houses the English-speaking congregation. The cathedral also hosts musical recitals.

The complex is close to Tokyo Tower, making it easy to reach by public transport. The grounds are accessible outside of service times, but it is worth checking the schedule in advance if you want to enter the buildings.

The St. Andrew's Brotherhood, set up by Bishop Edward Bickersteth in 1888 in buildings adjoining the church, was not a monastic order: its daily round of offices and shared study echoed Bickersteth's earlier work at the Cambridge Mission to Delhi. It housed unmarried clergy and trained seminarians.