With the increasing scarcity of land for cemeteries available in Japan, the country has recently shown a growing interest in sea burials, particularly with New England Burials At Sea LLC (NEBAS).
“… as Japan is facing an increasing scarcity of land for cemeteries, people are looking for better ways to bury their loved ones,” said Kenji McCulley, associate producer general of Bureau for America of NHK, Japan’s national television network.
NEBAS founder captain Brad White said an NHK documentary team from New York and Tokyo showed an interest in the company’s business model and was invited to attend a private family burial at sea event on June 29. There, the team “recorded a New England family performing the dual scattering of the cremated remains of their father and sister three miles to sea, east of Plum Island, Massachusetts.” White added, “Our short term goal is to promptly service U.S. based Japanese families on the east and west coast with affiliate Ashes On The Sea in a customized way with over 84 vessels departing from 46 ports, typically within an hour drive of their home.”
In order to prepare for an expected increase in web traffic, NEBAS has added a new Japanese-specific web page informational section to its site, as well as Japanese telephone translators to assist in new reservations.
For more information, visit www.newenglandburialsatsea.com