Immediately after the loosening of the prohibition of Christian faith in Japan , a Catholic church was built in 1862 by the Paris Foreign Missions Society in the Yokohama foreign settlement ( currently Yamashita-cho ) . This church moved to the current location in 1906 , and was a brick building with two bell towers . The 1923 Great Kantō earthquake completely destroyed it . The present Yamate Catholic Church was designed by Czech architect Jan Josef Švagr in the Neo-Gothic style and completed in 1933 . When the Diocese of Yokohama was erected in 1937 , the Yamate church became its cathedral
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
1923 Great Kantō earthquake
Sacred Heart Cathedral, Yokohama