Disrespectful or convenient? Drive-through funeral services available in Japan

Drive-through windows save you the trouble of having to find parking and getting out of a nicely air-conditioned car, especially in summer-all-year-long Singapore. This is really convenient, whether you are buying a meal or withdrawing money, for example. But what about a drive-through funeral service?

Apparently, this has been made into a reality at the Ueda-Minami Aishoden funeral home in Nagano prefecture, Japan. This unprecedented service in Japan is created for the benefit of the elderly and people with mobility difficulties. They can more conveniently attend funerals with ease and bid their friends or family a last goodbye.

By making use of a tablet at the drive-through window, the attendee can register their details while comfortably sitting in the car, pass the condolence money to the staff and even burn some incense. The family of the deceased can also acknowledge the attendee through a monitor at the funeral home.

The whole process of paying respects to the deceased is shortened to just three minutes.

“There are many people who want to attend funerals but cannot, such as those under nursing care. The drive-through funeral service is not to simplify things for the lazy, but for the benefit of these people,” President Masao Ogiwara of the funeral home clarified.

“Although at the beginning people were saying a drive-through funeral is disrespectful, recently many have applauded the idea of being considerate to the elderly and the disabled. As Japan faces an ageing population, it is necessary for funeral service to evolve with the society,” commented President Kenji Takehara who developed this drive-through funeral service.

As long as this service isn’t abused and can help people who cannot attend funerals otherwise, it does seem to be more of a boon than a bane.

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