Podcast No. 28 in English
Hello everyone, today is June 23rd, 2021.
My name is Yuusuke Wada, currently the only funeral business podcaster and a consultant in Japan.
Researcher of Reform of Death and I prepare for the End of Life Journey.
Podcast No. 28 of YEYSHONAN, a weekly podcast in English.
Today’s talk is on the next funeral business trade show in Yokohama.
This event has been going on for the past 25 years but last year, due to COVID-19 crisis, the organizers had to cancel the event, so this will be the 24th event.
Just like the previous event 2 weeks ago, please pre-register.
I’ll post it on the blog.
https://f-vr.jp/sogo-unicom/funeral_fair/
Due to COVID-19 crisis, many funeral parlors have decided to go online with their services. Companies like Life Ending Technologies have been marketing non-zoom methods of online funerals.
All you need is a mediocre spec PC and a webcam, and not to forget, an adequate internet speed but not necessarily extreme high speed.
3~5 Mbps will do.
Problem of zoom is the security and authorization.
To keep privacy and security, there has to be an administrator watching the computer. This cannot be done where human resources are scarce.
If you have ever been an administrator in a zoom, you know how it is.
Even if you ask people to pre-register, they don’t.
For the funerals, as an administrator, you just ignore these people.
It jeopardizes privacy.
Other companies have implemented online payment systems.
But funeral costs are usually beyond the credit card limit so it defeats the purpose. There are workarounds.
What undertakers need to do is to do more online marketing.
They have to think why would people want to use your funeral parlor?
What kind of edge do your company have which your competitors don’t?
This year, there are IT companies that’ll let others (your peers and co-workers, and distant relatives) know that you have a funeral coming, although they might not want to know.
Is that really necessary? I do not know.
To be honest, I don’t need such. People would rather stay away and ignore as much as possible unless there’s something really into it.
Japan uses dry-ice (frozen carbon dioxide) to freeze the body.
There has been few discussions of carbon foot-print.
But dry-ice is made from compressed carbon dioxide that is already in the air.
It’s a zero carbon foot-print nowadays.
People can argue about this but it’s not worth it.
The main reason is that, if NOT, we are using fossil fuel to super cool and manufacture dry-ice and this defeats the purpose.
The alternative uses a non-dry-ice cooling system but also uses electricity to the fullest.
Ecology is another issue in the funeral business in Japan.
Why are we burning coffins?
Coffins are made of many materials. Some cheap ones are made of highly compressed cardboard. Which is also recycled cardboard.
Cardboards are manufactured 90% using recycled cardboard.
Why aren’t people using such?
They are but the cheap ones look very cheap.
Where’s the dignity?
This is where it counts.
This wraps up today’s post.
I’ll be attending Yokohama’s event for two days.
For those who want to get in touch with me please contact me via my FB Page
https://www.facebook.com/YEYShonan/
Stay tuned.
I will be podcasting once a week in English.
Have a good day and have a good week.
You only live once and you only die once.
And don’t forget to subscribe to this channel.
Thank you very much.
www.yeyshonan.com 