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Japan Businesses

Japan Opens First Drive-through Funeral Service (japantimes.co.jp) 96

Posted by msmash from the when-in-Japan dept.
A funeral home with a drive-thru window opened in Nagano Prefecture on Sunday, allowing mourners to pay their respects without getting out of the car. From a report: The operator of the Aishoden funeral home in Ueda said the service is the first of its kind in Japan. It is primarily aimed at allowing seniors and the disabled to attend funerals but may also be used in the future by people short on time. During a tour Saturday, residents lined up to get a look at the innovative facility, which allows drive-thru mourners to stop their cars next to a window and enter their names and addresses on a device handed over by a waiting receptionist.
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Japan Opens First Drive-through Funeral Service More

Japan Opens First Drive-through Funeral Service

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  • What about respect? (Score:3)

    by DontBeAMoran ( 4843879 ) on Monday December 18, 2017 @12:05PM (#55762055)

    Part of going to a funeral is to talk with the other people who knew the deceased person, give your support, etc.

    I guess this service might be appropriate for the funerals of people like Rodney Dangerfield.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by syn3rg ( 530741 )
      Going to the funeral does much to comfort the family, in addition to showing respect for the deceased.

      Also, +1 insightful for the RD quip.

      • Agreed; the person in question, was a good friend, and an excellent boss.

        When I met the widow and their children, one of the sons' eyes lit up, and said, 'Mom, he's the guy Dad always talked about!'

        His mother explained He always talked about you

        I was surprised that they remembered somebody they hadn't met; I was glad to have been there -- I regretted not talking about that great guy, because I might say something off-color.

    • Re:What about respect? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Monday December 18, 2017 @12:16PM (#55762159)

      "Funerals are for the living".

      That's a fairly old quote, I know it through my father. I didn't understand it for a long time, probably because like a lot of teens I was pretty self-absorbed as a kid. But I get it now.

      >Part of going to a funeral is to talk with the other people who knew the deceased person, give your support, etc.

      Mutual support if you knew the deceased and aren't there only to support a grieving friend or family member. This is ALL of the funeral, in my opinion (though some people apparently need to see the body - I don't get that, but it doesn't make it less true).

      • Sometimes people feel that they need to say goodbye in person, and looking at a closed coffin just doesn't work for them. I'm not one of them, so I can't explain it, but I do know that there are those who find viewing the deceased's corpse finds it easier to let go.

    • Part of going to a funeral is to talk with the other people who knew the deceased person, give your support, etc.

      Why can't you do that with Twitter?

    • Part of going to a funeral is to talk with the other people who knew the deceased person, give your support, etc.

      I guess this service might be appropriate for the funerals of people like Rodney Dangerfield.

      In Japan the Wake is held before the funeral. There's very little talking still to do.

    • Part of going to a funeral is to talk with the other people who knew the deceased person, give your support, etc.

      They can do that in a Slack group.

      The service seems a little clunky though, having to enter your name and such by hand - what is needed is NFC support for paying respects, AKA RespectPay. Then you just drive up, wave your phone (or watch) at the respect terminal, and respects were paid in person without making other people wait.

  • This seems extremely disrespectful (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Monday December 18, 2017 @12:11PM (#55762123)

    If this is to aid people with mobility issues, the correct response is to make the facility wheelchair accessible, and perhaps have a staff member available to assist.

    Otherwise... you may as well just post condolences on a Facebook page.

    • The first time I went to Japan was about 15 years ago. I spent a few days in a fairly small town in the middle of nowhere. A short walk from where I was staying there was a drive-through shrine, where you could get your car blessed. This was, apparently, not unusual. I don't know what other drive-through services are offered by temples there, but this seems like a logical extension.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Religions in Japan tend to be a lot more pragmatic. Even with accessible venues a lot of elderly people were not attending funerals because of frailty. This solves that problem for them.

        Also the Shinto priests will bless anything. Most new buildings, trains, road junctions etc get blessed. Death is usually handled by Buddhists though. People participate in both religions, although not very seriously.

      • Cars get blessed [oca.org] by Christian priests just as well. If I remember correctly, this particular oddity is especially popular in Russia. Then again, their church is seriously nuts.

    • But... Nagano (Japan) is cold and snowy (Olympics, remember). Of course you guys from SF living 3 months of a mild winter cannot understand.

  • People are dying to get into this drive though...

  • Hopefully they bring this to the U.S. so that this guy's family [youtube.com] can benefit from it!

  • I don't want to go on the cart!

  • I thought America is where this would happen first.
  • The coin operated type.

  • Phht That's nothing (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    With my Amazon Prime membership, I can have the deceased shipped to me. I get it within two days, pay my respects, and then print out a return label and drop the corpse off at Staples.

  • A Totally Bullshit Story (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    English language media outlets, like The Japan Times, always focus on oddball news. They are almost NEVER an accurate portrayal of life in Japan. They do Japan a great disservice by catering to our love of the sensational.

    During the decades that I lived in Japan, I attended several traditional Buddhist funerals. They were always profoundly beautiful and respectful. It's unfortunate that most Americans have no idea about the true nature of funerals in Japan.

    Frankly, the American tradition of a caravan of

  • This may seem a bit crass, but you have to consider that the Japanese are essentially socially obligated to attend funerals of the extended family they may not really care about much. When the current senior generation has half a dozen siblings this becomes a bit hard on the already very old living seniors. It’s not really the western get together and remember the joyful moments of the deceased’s life kind of event that you may think it is.

  • Yeah, and this is news for nerds?

    Why is this on Slashdot?

  • Next up: drive-through funeral home and car-wrecker!

  • I think this is more of an cost factor that's in play here. Perhaps this is catered more to people who wouldn't be holding the funerals at all. Holding funeral in Japan can be expensive and good chunk of the fund comes from the funeral attendees. If enough people are not attending due to their availabilities then I can see that would be problem...

  • Remember, this is also the country whose toilets make fake flushing noises [youtube.com]. Everything is about appearances. Putting your name on a list at a funeral "proves" you care so much , you will do the absolute minimum socially necessary.

    • It's also convenient for high-level execs who have to turn up at the funeral of a worker who died of overwork [wikipedia.org] even though the exec never met the worker, doesn't care but doesn't want to lose face by ignoring the incident.

  • No thanks. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Wdomburg ( 141264 ) on Monday December 18, 2017 @01:59PM (#55763245)

    Manually enter my name on a device? What century are we in?

    I'll start attending funerals when I can check in via E-ZPass. And they better have a 20MPH lane. I'm not slowing down to 5MPH for anyone but immediate family.

    • No way. That's completely the wrong direction to go with this. What they really need to do is partner with McDonald's so you can pick up a happy meal for the ride home.

      • Welcome to Nagano Funeral Service! What would you like today?

        We service wooden coffins, metal coffins, headstones, flowers, shovels, ritual priests and dead lawyers! Our today's special is the wooden coffin set with flowers for only $999.99!

  • The good news is that they also have a drop-off as well. It's labelled "."
  • https://www.roadsideamerica.co... [roadsideamerica.com] We had one of these a couple of decades ago. I believe somebody tried to make a night deposit and it was closed shortly thereafter.
  • Soilent green production ramps up in Japan, and an un named japanese ad agency came appolagices for the ad stating” Did grandma die tiday? Well you can have her for dinner tomorrow evedently a somewhat desturbed intern changed the text pefor it eas publshed, both he and his supervisor has been let go.

  • Been there, done that.. try this one from 2012 for example:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new... [dailymail.co.uk]

    So.. world's first?

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