Podcast in English 20210701 Old Age and Economy –Deep Dive of FCCJ

Hello everyone, today is July 1st, 2021.

My name is Yuusuke Wada, probably the only funeral business podcaster in Japan and also a death industry consultant. I am also the Researcher of the Reform of Death and I prepare for the End of Life Journey.

Podcast No. 29 of YEYSHONAN, a weekly podcast in English.
Sorry, I am one day late for the weekly podcast.

Last week I was at the funeral trade show in Yokohama. It was better that I imagined.
I’ll talk about this in a different episode.

**The ONLY Funeral Business Podcaster in Japan**

This morning, I was at The Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan (FCCJ) for an event called the Deep Dive, which is a task force organized by ex-presidents of FCCJ and a few members including myself. The topic was Japan’s economic recovery trajectory.

The panelists were Mr. Paul Sheard who is the research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, Mr. Naoyuki Yoshino at professor at Keio, and Mr. Jesper Koll who is a venture capitalist, moderated by Mr. Anthony Rowley of Asia Economic.

From left, Prof. Yoshino, Mr. Anthony Rowley, Mr. Jesper Koll, and attending from NY, Mr. Paul Sheard on screen.

One of the issues discussed was that the old aged society is pulling our legs in the workforce. These government expenditures on welfare could be put to a better use. The idea of prolonging the retirement age and wages based on productivity should precede seniority in the company.

The workforce in Japan switches jobs due to NOT the enhancement of their careers but due to human relationships at work, such as not liking the Bucho or Kacho at all. These are all negative impacts. The engineers are in silos and do not go out meeting others.

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昨年飛ばしたフューネラルビジネスフェア開催

本日、パシフィコ横浜にてフューネラルビジネスフェアが開催されました。

私としては、実は2周間前のエンディング産業展もありましたが、そこで出会った人たちだけではなく、昨年や一昨年にフューネラルビジネスフェア2019やエンディング産業展2020、2021で出会った人たちと会う場所でもありました。

いわゆる同窓会みたいなものでもありました。

https://yeyshonan.com/japanese-funeral/funeral-biz-2021/

大切なことは続けることです。

今、葬儀業界がジリ貧状態になりつつあります。

単価アップだけでは救えない業界です。
単価アップしたら次がないという状況にもあります。

どうやったらお客様に喜んでいただけるか考える必要があります。

お葬式の価値は何かを説明せずに単価アップはカローラに1000万も支払うような状態でもあるのかな？
別に払いたければ払ってもよいのですが、同じものがもっと格安で入手できてなぜ、その金額？ってのを考える必要があります。

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Podcast in English 20210623 Funeral Biz Fair in Yokohama

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.

The **ONLY Funeral Business Podcaster in Japan** now

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.

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Podcast in English 20210616 Aquamation

Hello everyone, today is June 16th, 2021.

My name is Yuusuke Wada, I’m your host, a funeral business podcaster and a funeral consultant in Japan.
Also a Researcher of Reform of Death and I prepare for the End of Life Journey.

Podcast No. 27 of YEYSHONAN, a weekly podcast in English.

Today’s talk is a continuation of last week, the 3 day event of the ending industry expo in Tokyo.

According to the official announcement, the total participants were 12,634 people.
But these are the people who registered for the event but there were other events simultaneously and people were able to attend any of them with one ticket. Therefore, there were more.

Last year, the number was about 13,900 people.

This year, from the 2nd and 3rd day, there were people from other events attending and there seemed to be more than last year.
What I found out recently, there were people who were interested in different kinds of burial or basically, alternatives to cremation.

In the USA, there is natural decomposition and even “aquamation” which uses alkaline-hydrolysis using alkaline based liquid.
In Japan, the only solution is cremation.

What is “aquamation”?

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Podcast in English 20210603 Funeral Industry Tradeshows

Hello everyone. Today is June 3rd, 2021.

My name is Yuusuke Wada.
I’m a funeral business consultant, a researcher of Reform of Death and I prepare the End of Life Journey.

Today’s talk is about funeral business trade show in Japan.

I’m your host Yuusuke Wada, funeral business podcaster of Japan and you’re listening to the BGM called “君はもういない” , the direct translation would be that “you are no longer her”, meaning “I miss you”.

In the last episode, I stated I will podcast once a week.
Sorry, I missed the deadline post yesterday. I had the manuscript written but couldn’t record.

Funeral business trade show in Japan.

I’ve written many posts on this subject in both Japanese and English.

But this will be the first podcast in English speaking on the subject.

Initially, there was only one event that was for the public. Public meaning the industry people. There were private events held by the funeral companies and their suppliers before that but not a conglomerate event organized by the publisher called “Sogo Unicom”.

Sogo Unicom sold many magazines, including funeral industry information, such as the trends, newly opened parlors, and crematoriums and such.

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Podcast in English 20210526

It’s been 6 months since I last posted podcast here.

I’m a funeral business consultant, a researcher of Reform of Death and I prepare the End of Life Journey.

I’m your host Yuusuke Wada, funeral business podcaster of Japan and you’re listening to the BGM called “The Bluest Star” by the artist “The 126er” from the YouTube Audio Library.

Today is May 26 and it’s the birthday of the lovely lady, Stevie Nicks.
A brief introduction of myself.

I used to be a funeral parlor owner and a funeral director.
I regard myself as an ex-funeral director but once you are a funeral director, you’ll always be a funeral director for the rest of your life, whether you like it or not.

I’m also an ex-engineer.
I used to design and develop laser printers and copiers for a Japanese manufacturing company and also used to be a tech support for an USA based firm in LA designing laser printer controllers.

Now, I consult in many areas.
One, is without saying, undertaker business.
My podcasts are about the Japanese funeral business.

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Podcast in English 20201120

I’ve registered a virtual office in Tokyo.
The same building as the Foreign Press Club (FCCJ) in Marunouchi at ServCorp.
Next year, I’ll be upgrading to a real office there and moving out of Ueno (Okachimachi) since I’m having many network speed problem.

I have exchanged my WiFi router from Apple to tp-link mesh router and it’s excellent. Much easier to set up and extremely fast.
Although, there was a one big problem of this router is that it keeps telling me to update, where I have already done 5 times but now it’s gone.

Then, there is the ENDEX 2020 next week.