Japan's newest tech innovation: Order a priest online

Priest delivery is disrupting traditional funeral arrangements

The stubble-haired Buddhist priest lit incense at a small, cupboard-like altar just as members of his order have done for centuries. As the priest chanted sutras, Yutaka Kai closed his eyes and prayed for his wife, who died last year of complications from a knee replacement.

Kai, 68, set aside his family's devout Buddhism when he left his rural hometown decades ago to work in a tyre factory. That meant Kai did not have a local temple to turn to for the first anniversary of his wife's death, a milestone for Japanese Buddhists.

Cue the internet. In modern Japan, a Buddhist priest can now be found just a few mouse clicks away, on Amazon.com.

"It's affordable, and the price is clear," said Kai's eldest son, Shuichi, 40. "You don't have to worry about how much you're supposed to give."

The priest at Mrs Kai's memorial, Junku Soko, is part of a controversial business that is disrupting traditional funeral arrangements in Japan. In a country where regulations and powerful interests have stymied much of the so-called gig economy - Uber, for instance, is barely a blip here - a network of freelancing priests is making gains in the unlikely sphere of religion.

Their venture is viewed by some as unseemly, and it has drawn condemnation from Buddhist leaders. An umbrella group representing Japan's many Buddhist sects complained publicly after Amazon began offering obosan-bin - priest delivery - on its Japanese site last year, in partnership with a local start-up.

But the priests and their backers say they are addressing real needs. They assert that obosan-bin is helping to preserve Buddhist traditions by making them accessible to the millions of people in Japan, who have become estranged from the religion.

"Temples will sell you 10 yen candles for 100 yen," said Soko, 39. "They're protecting their own interests." Such arguments will be familiar to anyone who has watched e-commerce companies upend other parts of the economy, from book publishing to airlines, taxis and hotels.

In Japan, even in areas far less sensitive than religion, newcomers often receive a chilly reception, and start-ups are rarer than in other rich countries. Among the explanations are a scarcity of venture capital, the political clout wielded by established businesses and a culture that values stability over the creative destruction that drives growth in countries like the United States.

Yet religion may prove to be an exception. It is so opaque - and so removed from the day-to-day lives of many modern Japanese - that a little technological disruption may prove welcome.

The process of booking a priest on Amazon can feel disconcertingly secular. Users click on one of several options and add it to a virtual shopping cart, the same way they would a juicer or a pair of shoes. Prices are fixed. A basic memorial ceremony at the home of the deceased costs ¥35,000, or about $344. The most expensive package, with a second service at a cemetery and the granting of a special posthumous Buddhist name, costs ¥65,000.

© 2016 New York Times News Service