Greetings from President Yasuda

　When we began our movement, shizensou, returning cremains to nature, was considered illegal. We argued that shizensou violated neither the criminal law nor the legal code regulating cemeteries and burial. Since we were convinced that shizensou is not illegal, we conducted our first shizensou at the Sea of Sagami during the fall of 1991. The Ministry of Law and the Ministry of Health and Welfare both supported the validity of our claim. As a result, we established our freedom to choose death practices for the first time in our country. We believe that we opened a new chapter in the history of Japanese death customs.

　Twenty years have passed since we established the society in February of 1991. We now maintain twelve branches and approximately 15,000 members; with their support, we won social recognition for shizensou and freedom of choice in death practices. We have conducted shizensou 1,521times, returning to nature the ashes of 2,660 (as of Feb. 2010) people across Japan from Hokkaido Island to Okinawa.

　Despite these developments, old death customs persist in some areas of Japan. Furthermore, funeral industries target the growing elderly population to sell commercialized mortuary services. In this context, it is critical to conduct shizensou in a socially responsible manner and build a stronger social consensus for our freedom to choose death practices.

　As a people's movement, we strive to achieve these goals. We became a non-profit organization in 2002 and renewed our sense of determination. We sincerely ask our new members to support and advance this movement by drawing more supporters.