Spearheading change in the Japanese funeral sector
![Japanese Funeral Support](/sites/itij/files/2024-05/japanese-funeral-header.jpg)
Robert Hoey, President of Funeral Support Services Japan, spoke to ITIJ about language barriers, funeral regulations, and expanding the business
You have been president of Funeral Support Services Japan for almost seven years. How has the industry, and your role, changed in that time?
Funeral Support Services Japan started doing repatriations and cremations only a few years before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. We averaged only a few cases a month, and when the pandemic hit everything stopped as travel in and out of Japan halted. My company specialises in advanced embalming so thankfully we had that to fall back on until Covid-19 subsided.
My company was the first company in Japan to offer embalming for people who succumbed to the coronavirus, thus putting us in the forefront of specialised funeral providers. Where other companies have turned down families due to corona, we embraced them and were able to provide full repatriations and services when others could not.
The company has extensive experience of conducting repatriations globally. Have recent conflicts around the world affected how you operate, and if so, how?
We occasionally deal with shipping deaths when ships would come into our port with a deceased crew member on board. Last year we were contacted by an assistance company who were turned down by their usual local provider because the crew member was
We never refuse a case because we always put ourselves in the shoes of the family no matter which country they come from
Russian and the death occurred outside of the Japanese border in international waters.
It was obviously a difficult case because the Japanese authorities did not want to get involved. We never refuse a case because we always put ourselves in the shoes of the family no matter which country they come from. By working together with a team of local doctors, lawyers, the shipping company and the assistance company, we were able to successfully repatriate the man to his family in Russia.
From that case on we gained a reputation as a company that could assist no matter what the situation is. We have strong connections in Europe which help us cross borders when flights are not able to fly in. There are no direct flights out of Japan to Russia and Ukraine due to the conflict there at this time.
Rules and regulations differ from one country to another. How do you deal with differing regulations and traditions when planning funerals and burials?
I have been a funeral director for over 36 years. I started my career in Ottawa, Canada where the community is a large mix of different cultures and religions. Japan is a mostly homogenous culture where the foreign community is still regarded as unusual.
I have been working in Japan as an embalmer for over 30 years so I am very familiar with the culture and language here. As the only foreign-run funeral company in Japan, we have the experience and understanding of other cultures and religions whereas many other funeral companies in Japan do not. Quite often local Japanese funeral companies will subcontract work to us when they are unable to speak English or deal with a culture they are not familiar with.
You have native English-speaking staff in your team in order to communicate with families, insurance companies and funeral homes overseas. How much of a difference does this make to the business?
This is a huge advantage which sets us apart from the other funeral providers in Japan. We realise that families feel more comfortable when dealing with someone in their native language during the death of their loved one. As Funeral Support Services grows, we are planning on bringing in more and more staff from different foreign communities in order to assist with various languages. At the moment we also have a network of part-time staff that we can call upon when the language involved is not English or Japanese.
What’s next for Funeral Support Services Japan?
Right now we have two facilities in the Tokyo/ Yokohama area with Japanese affiliates throughout the country from Hokkaido to Okinawa. We are able to provide efficient assistance nationwide at the moment, however, we are planning on opening up other Funeral Support Services facilities particularly in the Osaka/Kyoto region, as well as throughout the country. These facilities will be staffed with foreign professionals so we can provide a faster and more seamless service without relying on the support from our staff in our Tokyo-area offices.