Apparently, coffins aren’t just for the dead anymore.

Businesses in Japan are offering people the opportunity for a moment of peace by meditating in a coffin, and it is becoming a thing, according to published reports.

One 120-year funeral home, located in the city of Kisarazu, began the service in September 2025 and had received 20 bookings for coffin meditation within a month. The process, called “coffin-lying” according to the New York Post, is also being offered by several other businesses in Japan.

The experience can be particularly helpful for those feeling depressed or fearful of death, according to some who tried coffin-lying in 2025 at a university in the country.

“It was an opportunity to reflect on myself and reset my worries,” one participant said, according to an article in The Mainichi.

Another wrote, “The fear of death disappeared, and I felt a stronger desire to live.”

Suicide among youth in Japan has risen to record highs, according to The Mainichi, and facing death through lying in a coffin can help dispel fears.

The coffins used range from standard plain wooden containers to more fanciful options with flowers, linens and other accessories. Music can be provided, or the experience can be in complete silence. The coffin can be open or closed.

While the experience may seem strange, Aya Seike, a professor of social medicine at Risumeikan University, told The Mainichi it has value.

“Facing death as a means of reevaluating life is an extremely important activity,” Seike said.

George R. Kelder Jr., CFSP

Let’s talk about something everyone needs, no one has time for, and most of us put off until the calendar starts looking a little … urgent. Continuing education.

For the past six years, online CE has largely meant rearranging your day, begging a colleague to cover you for several hours or logging in at a specific time and hoping nothing goes sideways. If you missed it? Too bad. Try again next time. We’ve all been there.

That’s why the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association is making a meaningful change for 2026, one that’s less about shiny technology and more about acknowledging how funeral directors actually work.

Starting this year, New Jersey Funeral Service Education Corporation continuing education webinars will be available on demand through a newly developed learning management system. No set dates. No set times. No scrambling to fit your life around an online seminar schedule that was created in a vacuum.

Instead, you’ll be able to log in when it works for you–24/7.

The new platform does a few important things quietly, efficiently and without asking you to become a tech expert. It tracks your progress, so if you get pulled away mid-course (because, of course you will), you can pause and pick up right where you left off (provided it’s within 72 hours of beginning the course). It records completion, issues credit when you’re done and keeps everything in one place so you’re not hunting through emails or certificates later trying to prove you did what you were supposed to do.

In other words, it works the way online CE should have worked a long time ago.

Now, before anyone mutters “here we go” under their breath, this isn’t change for the sake of change. This is change because the old system didn’t reflect reality. Funeral service doesn’t run on tidy schedules. Families don’t wait. Telephones don’t care that you’re halfway through an online seminar. And pretending otherwise hasn’t made CE more meaningful, it’s just made it more frustrating.

On-demand online learning doesn’t lower standards. It doesn’t water anything down. What it does is remove unnecessary obstacles. You’re still responsible for the material. You still have to complete the course. You still earn the credit. The difference is that you get to do it on your terms instead of someone else’s.

And let’s be honest: When education fits into your life instead of fighting it, you’re far more likely to actually absorb the content.

This new system also gives the NJFSEC more flexibility in what we offer and how we offer it. It opens the door to more targeted topics, more timely content and education that responds to what’s actually happening in funeral service, not just what fits neatly into a calendar block.

For those who prefer in-person education, conferences or live events, those aren’t going away. This isn’t an “either/or.” It’s an “and.” It’s about expanding options, not replacing traditions that happen in-person each year at Convention.

If you’ve ever said, “I’ll get to my CE when things slow down,” this is your reminder that things don’t slow down but they can get easier.

Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more details about available courses, how to access the system and what you can expect from the NJFSEC 2026 Mandatory CE lineup. When it launches, try it. Log in. Take a course at a date and time that actually makes sense for you.

Continuing education should support your professionalism and not compete with it. This is a step in that direction.

And yes, you can pause it if the telephone rings. We planned for that.

Ryan Buckland, President

There is a moment that every funeral professional knows well. It comes after the last prayer has been spoken, after the final condolences have been offered and the family stands at the edge of an open grave or an empty room facing the weight of a world that will never quite look the same again. In that moment, what does the grieving heart need most? The answer, more often than not, is hope.

Hope is not the same as optimism. Optimism says things will probably work out. Hope says that even here, even now, there is something worth holding on to. For funeral professionals, understanding that distinction is not merely a philosophical exercise. It is at the heart of serving families well.

Good funeral service begins with honesty. Grief should never be rushed, minimized or dressed up with easy words. The pain of losing someone is real, and families need to feel that their sorrow is seen and honored. A service that skips past the rawness of loss in a hurry to reach comfort does a disservice to everyone in the room. And yet the role of the funeral professional is not simply to acknowledge darkness but to help families find their way through it. This is where hope enters, not as a denial of pain, but as a companion to it. The two are not opposites. They are fellow travelers.

Across centuries and cultures, people have reached for language that could hold both the weight of loss and the possibility of something beyond it. The Psalms of the Hebrew Bible are perhaps the most enduring example, poetry that does not flinch from anguish yet refuses to let anguish have the final word. "Weeping may endure for a night," the writer declares, "but joy comes in the morning." That image of morning, of a light arriving after a long darkness, has guided mourners for thousands of years. It is not a promise that grief disappears quickly. It is an assurance that grief does not last forever.

Funeral professionals who are familiar with these traditions, whatever their own background, carry a meaningful resource. Knowing which scriptures, poems or readings have brought comfort across generations allows them to offer families something timeless in a moment of profound need. Building hope into a funeral service also means paying attention to the arc of the ceremony itself. A service that only looks backward, however lovingly, can leave families feeling stranded in loss. The most powerful services hold memory and meaning together, celebrating a life fully lived while also pointing toward whatever the family believes lies ahead. This might be a carefully chosen reading that speaks of reunion or peace, a piece of music that lifts the spirit without dismissing the sorrow or simply the way a funeral director speaks with quiet confidence that this family will, in time, find their way to morning.

Ultimately, hope in funeral service is not delivered through perfect words or flawless ceremonies. It is carried in the presence of people who have chosen to sit with the grieving, again and again, because they believe that accompanying others through loss is sacred work. That belief, that no one should face the darkness alone and that morning does come, is itself a form of hope. And it may be the most important thing a funeral professional offers.

A glitch in the Electronic Death Registration System resulted in some funeral directors being overcharged for the generation of burial permits.

Funeral directors requesting burial permits were charged $6 instead of $5, officials at EDRS said. The increased cost was not authorized, and funeral directors charged the extra fee will be reimbursed, according to EDRS.

Approximately 290 funeral homes were affected. The issue was discovered when a funeral director alerted the New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association of the increased charge. The NJSFDA alerted EDRS, which immediately began investigating.

EDRS is in the process of issuing refunds. It will take several days for all refunds to be issued. If any funeral director notices a similar billing issue, they should contact EDRS or the NJSFDA Manager of the Day at 800.734.3712, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or via email at njsfda@njsfda.org.

Ohio could be the next state to legalize natural organic reduction if a recently introduced bill in the state legislature is approved.

Republican state Senator Louis W. Blessing III introduced Senate Bill 323, which calls for establishing NOR as a choice for families when considering methods for treating a body in preparation for disposition. Blessing, in testimony before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, called NOR “the gentle process of transforming a body into soil.”

“Natural organic reduction might not be the right choice for everyone, but we should respect and allow this choice for those who want it because it reflects their values,” Blessing said.

Natural organic reduction is the process of controlled supervised decomposition of a human body resulting in the conversion of human remains into a soil-like product. New Jersey legalized the process in 2025, and it is scheduled to become available to consumers in July 2026. Utah, as well as several other states, is also considering legalizing the process.

Blessing, in his testimony, said Ohio law “does not take into account new and environmentally mindful technologies like NOR that are already being regulated in 14 states across the country.”

“With state regulations not keeping up with the modern forms of funeral practices, this leaves bereaved families, local officials, and funeral services providers not able to meet the needs of Ohioans locally and they are forced to turn elsewhere,” Blessing added.

In states where the process is not available, interested families must arrange for transport to a state where there are NOR facilities in operation.

The bill is currently before the Ohio Senate Local Government Committee.

The National Funeral Directors Association has selected participants for its 2026 Meet the Mentors program.

New Jersey State Funeral Directors Association and Morris County Funeral Directors Association member Emma Bullock of Whitham-Kanapaux Funeral Home in Rockaway, NJ, has been selected as one of 22 licensees to attend.

This leadership experience will take place from April 14 to 17 in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with NFDA’s Advocacy Summit.

Meet the Mentors brings together early-career funeral service professionals for an immersive experience focused on leadership development, mentorship and advocacy.

The 2026 Meet the Mentors class will be guided by:

• Amie LM Swenson, Jerome, ID
• Tracy McAdams, Canal Winchester, OH
• Anna F. Zvirman-Nesbit, Pittsburgh, PA

Through candid conversation and discussion, these professionals will offer practical insights on leading, navigating business challenges, engaging communities and building meaningful, sustainable careers in funeral service.