About This Site & Editorial Policy

Last updated: August 12, 2026

Sonae & Shippo (「そなえとしっぽ」, "prepare & tail") is an independently run information site for people living with a senior dog or cat.

How this site came about

Almost nobody looks into what happens after a pet dies while their pet is still healthy. So most people end up making those calls on the worst day of the year, working down a list of search results — often in a language that isn't their first.

Among cremation providers in Tokyo, the ones that publish a total price upfront are the minority. Even the basic tiers — communal, delegated, attended — go by different names from one provider to the next. Municipal pickup is worse: the price and the conditions change from city to city, and there was nowhere to see them side by side.

The one thing nobody can do in the middle of grief is research and compare. So the research here was done ahead of time, while the day is still far off.

About the English section

This section is the companion to the Japanese site, sonae-shippo.com, for people who live in Japan but whose first language isn't Japanese. It isn't separate reporting — the facts and figures come from the Japanese pages, translated, with a line of context added where a Japanese system needs explaining (municipal pickup, the death notification, and so on). When the Japanese page changes, this one follows.

Editorial policy

Sources

Prices and rules come from each provider's and each municipality's official pages, not from roundup articles, and the sources always go at the bottom of the page. Product write-ups draw on the low-rated reviews too, and spell out what didn't work for those owners.

Updates

Prices change. The pages people read most — cremation costs, food comparisons — are rechecked monthly, with the date of the check on the page (the nationwide municipal listings, once a year).

Where you'll have to judge for yourself

What's happening with the animal in front of you is something I can't know. If anything worries you, even a little, I'd recommend seeing a vet.

And for the products and providers introduced here, what you can learn from this site is their published prices and tiers. How a company treats you on the day isn't visible from the outside — my recommendation is to judge that from how they answer the phone.

If you find a mistake

The pages are reviewed regularly, but price revisions still get missed, and so do plain oversights. If you spot something, write to [email protected] — I'll check it and fix it. Information and comments are welcome at the same address.

Hopefully what you're reading here is still a long way off.