SAYING GOODBYE
EMBALMING AND REPATRIATION
DURING THE PANDEMIC IN JAPAN
By Robert Hoey, President of Funeral Support Services Co. Ltd., Japan
Photo: Tianshu Liu on Unsplash
he COVID-19 pandemic in Japan
basically started the same as it
had all over the world. The majority of
countries treated their COVID-19 dead
with direct cremation and no family
involvement. Japan would not allow
the families to attend the cremations
which were time slotted at the end of
the day when the general public were
gone. The caskets were sealed with
tape and the crematorium staff wore
protective body suits when handling
these caskets.
I became a funeral director/embalmer in Canada
during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980`s.
As we began to learn more about AIDS at that
time, we started to feel safe enough to provide
embalming. COVID-19 brings back memories of
those days back when I was starting my career.
The process of embalming disinfects, preserves
and restores the body so it is safe for the
family to view and even touch their loved one.
Funeral Support Services Co. Ltd. was the first
embalming company to provide embalming for
those people who died from COVID-19 in Japan.
In March of 2020, Funeral Support Services
Co. Ltd. did the first Coronavirus embalming
and funeral service when a Canadian man who
arrived at Yokohama Port on the Diamond
Princess cruise ship died at a hospital in Tokyo.
The family contacted me and hid the fact that
their father died from COVID-19 because of
the stigma at the time. They told me that they
only needed a direct cremation and afterwards
they would take his cremated remains back
to Canada. After I got the full story, I told the
distraught family that they could say goodbye
to their dad by having embalming. They were
quite relieved as they were expecting to never
see him again. We went to the hospital, put on
our full protective equipment and transported
him back to our care center. As I am the owner
of my company I decided that I would do the
embalming so as not to put my staff at risk. I had
been in contact with my colleagues in Canada
and the United States and I had seen how they
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No. 104 – WINTER 2023 | THANOS MAGAZINE
CASE STUDY