Norihisa Tomiyasu opened his first mortuary in 1997 aiming to clean up a profession he says deserved its bad reputation for exploiting people's grief and overcharging them at some of the most fraught moments of their lives.
"The industry was so backward," he says. "I wanted to make it more socially responsible."
It turned out to be a shrewd career choice. Tomiyasu is founder and president of Tear Corp., a chain of discount funeral homes known for transparent pricing, whose share price has almost doubled since listing on the first tier of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2014.