Pet Cremation Costs in Japan

Last updated: August 12, 2026

Your pet's size changes what applies: large dogs (roughly 25kg and up) / small dogs and cats

Knowing the cost ahead of time helps. There are two broad routes: your local municipality, or a private company. This page uses only rates we confirmed directly — official pages from 792 cities plus the 23 wards of Tokyo for the municipal route, and the official sites of 9 mobile cremation companies for the private route.

Cost by weight

With private mobile cremation, cost rises with weight. We went back through the same 9 companies' official pages, broken down by weight bracket, to build a rough guide from small pets like rabbits up to large dogs (brackets differ by company, so we used whichever bracket was closest to each weight. As of August 2026, confirmed by our editorial team).

"(N of 9)" means the number of companies where we could confirm a rate for that weight bracket. Because companies draw their weight brackets differently, not every row has all 9 companies represented. At 25kg and up, some companies won't offer communal cremation at all — see large dogs for details.

Four things that determine cost, everywhere in Japan

The actual amount varies by region and provider, but what determines it is the same everywhere.

• Municipal vs. private: municipal service is cheaper, but most cremate together with other animals and don't return the ashes
• Type of cremation: communal, individual (unattended), and witnessed individual can differ several-fold (see Types of cremation)
• Weight: nearly every price list is organized by weight bracket
• Extra costs: travel fees, night surcharges, interment fees, and tax-exclusive pricing can sit outside the quote (more below)

Using the municipal service (792 cities surveyed)

Whether your city offers this, and what it costs, varies by municipality. We checked official pages for 792 cities plus the 23 wards of Tokyo; where a drop-off fee could be confirmed, for 352 of them, it ranged from ¥100 to tens of thousands of yen. Cheaper municipalities are more often communal incineration with no ash return, while pricier ones more often offer individual cremation or ash return — so part of the price gap is a service gap.

• Check the cost for your pet by location and weight
• Large dogs (municipal service may not be available; some providers decline communal cremation)
• Look up your municipality's rate by prefecture
• Top 30 cheapest municipalities for pet cremation
• Municipalities that return ashes (51 cities/wards nationwide)

Using a private service — case study: 9 mobile cremation companies in Tokyo

As a real-world example of private pricing, we checked the official rates of 9 mobile cremation companies operating in Tokyo (checked on each company's own site directly, not through a comparison site; around 5kg, as of July 2026). The amounts themselves vary by region, but starting-price-only listings, inconsistent weight brackets, and whether an all-inclusive total is disclosed are things to check nationwide. You can apply the same checklist to a local provider wherever you live.

Pet Homon Ceremony Tokyo and GRAN CIEL were excluded from this survey because we could not confirm pricing as text on their official sites. ※ CoCo Pet's communal cremation rate: in our initial survey (July 2026), we mistakenly read the smallest bracket, "extra-small pets (around 10cm body length)" at ¥6,600, as the rate for 2–5kg. We re-checked the official page via the www subdomain in August 2026 and corrected the 2–5kg communal cremation rate to ¥17,600 (incl. tax).

What this table shows

• Communal cremation ran ¥13,800–22,000, individual unattended ran ¥18,700–25,300, and witnessed individual ran ¥23,800–42,900 — up to a 1.8x gap within the same tier (limited to companies with a stated figure; excludes Happiness and Pet Sōgi 110-ban, which list only starting prices).
• Weight brackets are written inconsistently — "5kg and under," "2–5kg," "1–5kg," "6kg and under" — so they don't line up cleanly for a side-by-side comparison as-is.
• Terminology isn't standardized either. Some companies call communal cremation a "memorial park service" or "handover cremation," and some call witnessed cremation a "family-attended service." Some don't clearly label the three tiers at all.
• Only 3 of the 9 companies clearly disclose an all-inclusive total (Japan Animal Memorial, Ōmori Pet Reidō, and Animals Ceremony). Referral sites publish only a starting price — the actual amount depends on the affiliated provider.
• Several sites don't state whether prices are tax-inclusive or tax-exclusive.

What to look for when choosing a provider, and five questions to ask on the phone, are inChoosing a provider.

Why the same 5kg pet can cost 3x more

For a pet of the same weight, the price can run anywhere from ¥13,800 for the cheapest communal cremation to ¥42,900 for witnessed individual cremation — roughly a 3x spread. Within what we could confirm, there are mainly three reasons.

1. Different tiers mean different services

Communal and witnessed individual cremation are essentially different services. Whether the ashes are returned and whether you can attend both differ, so part of the price gap simply reflects a different service. The details of each tier are explained on our Types of cremation page.

2. Weight brackets are drawn differently by each company

Weight brackets vary by company. In this survey, we saw brackets like:

• 5kg and under (Minna no Pet Sōgiya-san)
• 2–5kg (CoCo Pet, Animals Ceremony)
• 1–5kg (Tokyo Pet Ceremony)
• 6kg and under (Japan Animal Memorial)

A pet weighing exactly 5kg can fall into a different bracket depending on where a company draws the line.

That's why comparing starting prices side by side, on their own, doesn't tell you much.

3. Referral sites vs. companies that cremate in-house

Pet Sōgi 110-ban and Minna no Pet Sōgiya-san are referral (broker) services — their published rate is only a starting price, and the actual amount depends on the affiliated local provider that handles your pet. Companies that cremate in-house publish their own rate directly.

A starting-price figure alone doesn't tell you what you'll actually pay.

Costs that often sit outside the estimate

Beyond the headline price, watch for costs that tend to sit outside the estimate. Within what we could confirm on the 9 companies' official pages, we found:

• Travel fee: Japan Animal Memorial and Animals Ceremony (within 40km) state their travel fee is free. Some sites don't mention a travel fee at all.
• Night/early-morning surcharge: Minna no Pet Sōgiya-san claims "no extras," while also noting a separate rate for nighttime service.
• Interment fee for communal cremation: CoCo Pet states a separate ¥3,300 interment fee for communal cremation.
• Tax-inclusive vs. tax-exclusive: Remember You lists prices tax-exclusive and implies a separate travel fee on top. Several sites don't state either way.

The surest way to confirm "a total with no extras" is to call and ask.

Suggested phrasing is in the "five questions to ask on the phone" section of Choosing a provider.

All-inclusive pricing as a way to choose

In this survey, only 3 of the 9 companies clearly stated, in writing, a total with no extra charges.

• Japan Animal Memorial: states no extra charges, and its travel fee is free.
• Ōmori Pet Reidō: states a tax-included total.
• Animals Ceremony: states free travel within 40km.

Disclosing a total costs the company nothing. Some put it in writing; others don't.

Whether a company discloses an all-inclusive total is one useful signal when choosing a provider. Not disclosing one doesn't necessarily mean a company is untrustworthy — if it matters to you, just confirm the total by phone.

Costs after the cremation

It's worth checking costs beyond the cremation fee itself, so nothing catches you off guard later. We re-checked the 9 companies' official pages at the same time as the weight-bracket survey and found the following (as of August 2026, confirmed by our editorial team).

Urn or collection container

For the individual (unattended) and witnessed individual plans, 7 of the 9 companies stated on their official sites that the urn or ash bag is included in the cremation fee (Pet Sōgi 110-ban, Japan Animal Memorial, CoCo Pet, Remember You, Animals Ceremony, Pet Kasou Happiness, Tokyo Pet Ceremony). Communal cremation doesn't return ashes, so no urn is used at all.

If you want to choose a specific size or material of urn, that can come at extra cost. Pet Kasou Happiness prices memorial goods from ¥550 (incl. tax); Animals Ceremony prices urns for ashes cremated elsewhere and brought in from free (2-sun and under) up to ¥4,000 (incl. tax) for a 7-sun urn, for pets they cremated themselves.

Interment fee

Of the 9 companies, only CoCo Pet clearly states an interment fee for communal cremation. Its official site says a separate ¥3,300 (incl. tax) interment fee applies on top of the cremation fee for the communal plan. For the rest, it wasn't clear from the page alone whether interment is included in the communal cremation price or simply unmentioned.

Ongoing memorial hall or cemetery fees

If you place the ashes at a temple or memorial park, there can be an ongoing annual renewal fee on top of the initial interment fee. Tokyo Pet Ceremony publishes the rates of its partner temple, Kannōji (Setagaya, Tokyo): communal interment ¥16,000 (including a memorial service), individual interment ¥16,500, plus a ¥10,000 deposit and ¥11,000/year renewal fee; an individual memorial shelf runs ¥11,000–55,000 (first year) plus the same ¥10,000 deposit and ¥11,000/year renewal. Ōmori Pet Reidō lists communal interment/perpetual memorial at ¥10,000, and individual interment (urn kept as-is) at ¥10,000/year. Some arrangements aren't a one-time cost — that's worth knowing before you book.

Keeping ashes at home

If you keep the ashes at home, you may face costs for bone-grinding (funkotsu — processing the ashes into a fine powder) or a memorial capsule. Where we could confirm actual figures: Pet Kasou Happiness (funkotsu from ¥4,400 incl. tax), Ōmori Pet Reidō (funkotsu ¥3,300 incl. tax; a new urn is an extra ¥2,200 if needed), Remember You (funkotsu ¥3,000 excl. tax), and Animals Ceremony (machine funkotsu from ¥700 for under 10kg). Options and things to consider for keeping ashes at home are covered inWhere to keep your pet's ashes. If you need time off work to attend the cremation, interment, or a final visit, see Taking time off work as well.

Ways to reduce the cost

There are a few ways to bring the cost down — but we'd suggest choosing based on peace of mind, not price alone.

• Use municipal communal cremation: if not getting the ashes back is acceptable, this is the cheapest option available. See our list ofthe 30 cheapest municipalities for pet cremation.
• Choose communal cremation with a private company too: communal cremation costs less than individual or witnessed individual. But since the ashes won't be returned, decide first whether that matters to you.
• Get an all-inclusive quote from more than one company: rather than comparing "starting from ¥X" figures, confirm the full total — including travel and interment fees — by phone or email before comparing.

Frequently asked questions

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