Funeral prep for Emperor Hirohito began seven years before his death: declassified documents
The Foreign Ministry began funeral preparations for Emperor Hirohito seven years before his death, holding secret talks with the Imperial Household Agency on the matter in 1982, recently declassified ministry records show. The late monarch, posthumously known as Emperor Showa, died in 1989. The ministry and ...
'You're empathetic, but there's that distance': A German undertaker in Japan
As Japanese mourners file into the funeral parlor, shrouded in silence and laden with flowers, Felix Steinkemper, dressed in a dark suit, stands ready to assist. It's a scene the 30-year-old German undertaker has witnessed hundreds of times: the open casket, the quiet sobbing, the ...
Train 4141 carries body of George H.W. Bush past waving throngs en route to Texas burial
The body of U.S. President George H.W. Bush arrived by train at his presidential library in College Station, Texas, on Thursday to be buried following a funeral at a Houston church where he was remembered by family members who knew him best as "Gampy." Bush, ...
The business of death has a bright future in Japan
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 ...
Hundreds of thousands turn out in black in Bangkok to say final goodbye to late king
Thailand bade a final goodbye to its beloved late King Bhumibol Adulyadej on Thursday in a ceremony steeped in ancient rituals, processions and Buddhist rites that drew hundreds of thousands of mourners. Despite heavy downpours, black-clad mourners crowded Bangkok's historic quarter where the king's cremation ...
In Japan, 'freestyle funerals' give mourners a chance to celebrate life
While Japan is by and large a secular society, the majority of funerals conducted in the country are Buddhist ceremonies. In most cases, the memorials are practiced more out of social custom rather than any overt religious belief. Even so, funerals tend to be solemn ...
Emperor Akihito's uncle, Prince Mikasa, who served in China during World War II and criticized the war waged in his older brother's name, was laid to rest Friday in solemn ceremonies attended by the Imperial family, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other mourners. Mikasa's death ...
Funeral services and a tomb for Prince Mikasa, who died last week at age 100, will cost an estimated ¥289 million, with the Cabinet deciding Tuesday to disburse ¥209 million of the total from the government's reserve funds for fiscal 2016. The remaining expenditures for ...
'Pokemon Go'-like app allows living to plan missives from beyond the grave
Now that the explosive popularity of "Pokemon Go" has brought augmented reality technology within the reach of ordinary people, a tombstone company in Chiba Prefecture is taking it beyond the grave. By allowing people to "catch" pre-recorded video messages from the departed in cemeteries, the ...
Hundreds gather to pay final respects to late yokozuna Chiyonofuji
Some 1,000 turned out to honor late legendary sumo wrestler Chiyonofuji on Sunday, when the funeral and memorial service were held at Tokyo's Kokonoe stable. Cattleya, the orchid loved by the iconic former yokozuna, were laid inside his coffin, as his former stablemate and fellow ...
'Corpse hotels' offer dignity for the dead as Japan's crematoriums struggle to keep up
Packed among houses and small factories in a semi-industrial area of Kawasaki, Sou Sou resembles a regular hotel. How it differs is that it serves the dead. Dubbed an itai hoteru (corpse hotel), Sou Sou is a storage venue for bodies before they are taken ...
Ashes to diamonds and the cost of death
'Where do we go when we die?" Every child, or the child in all of us, asks that at some point, with parents and philosophers saying this or that in reply: "We go to heaven," "We merge with the Absolute," and so on — or, ...
