VIDEO
CNN's Marina Kamimura reports on the Japanese village that claims to be the burial place of Jesus
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July 8, 1999
Web posted at: 10:04 a.m. EDT (1404 GMT)

(CNN) -- The Christian stories of Jesus' last days aren't confined to sites in the Middle East. One goes much farther geographically, and chronologically -- all the way to a tiny remote village in Japan.

As legend there has it, Jesus of Nazareth didn't ascend into heaven after crucifixion. Instead, the story goes, he lived -- to age 106 -- among the ancestors of some of the present-day villagers. Does everyone buy into it?

"I don't exactly think it's true, but I don't exactly think it's false either," says the man who owns the land where the grave is said to be located.

As CNN Tokyo Bureau Chief Marina Kamimura reports, it doesn't matter to some people whether the legend is legitimate. Tourists are coming by the busloads, grabbing a look and buying enough souvenirs to make perpetuating the story profitable in the Japanese village of Shingo.

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