Yoshihiko Kikuchi

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[1]Yoshihiko Kikuchi (born July 24, 1941 in Horoizumi, Hokkaidō, Japan) has been a general authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) since 1977. He is the first, and so far only, native-born Japanese to be called as a general authority of the LDS Church. Kikuchi was also the first resident of an Asian nation to become a general authority.

Growing up during a time when Japan was at war with the United States, Kikuchi's father was killed in a U.S. bombing raid. With a reason to hold a grudge against Americans, when contacted by American missionaries of the LDS Church after the war he was initially resistant to having anything to do with them, but was nevertheless responsive to the missionaries' message and was baptized at age 16. Three years after his baptism, Kikuchi entered service himself as a missionary in his own country, serving for three and one half years.

After his mission service, Kikuchi attended university in Hokkaidō, studying business psychology, while marrying and beginning his family.

After completing his education, Kikuchi and his family moved to Tokyo where he worked for a cookware firm. Later he worked as the national sales manager for an international company. During this time, Kikuchi was also continuing to serve in increasingly more responsible callings in his church, including president of one of the small branches of the church in Tokyo, and as the stake president in Tokyo. Due to this service, he came to the notice of the leaders of the church, and in 1977 Kikuchi was asked to retire from his secular pursuits to serve as a full-time general authority of the church. He was ordained a Seventy and became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy at the October 1977 general conference of the church. Kikuchi continues in this service to the present day. From 1994 to 1997, he was president of the church's Tokyo Japan Temple.

Kikuchi has been married to Toshiko Koshiya since 1964; the couple have four children.