Contact: Don Tamaki
Email: DTamaki@minamitamaki.com
Date: May 12, 2026

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COMMUNITY LETTER FROM

THE JAPANESE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY OF CALIFORNIA

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The Japanese Benevolent Society of California (JBSC) is asking for help from the community to resolve a situation that impacts the Japanese Cemetery in Colma, California. Due to a series of missteps, we have lost our licensing rights to operate the cemetery, which we are aggressively working towards restoring. We need community support to make this happen as soon as possible.

History

The Japanese Benevolent Society of California (Jikei-kai), founded in 1901, opened the two-acre Japanese Cemetery in Colma in 1903, after San Francisco passed a law forbidding new burials within city limits. In 1906, the Japanese government granted funding to the non-denominational cemetery where Japanese citizens could have plots to be buried. Historically, the remains of three sailors from the Kanrin Maru, the ship that brought the first Japanese Embassy to the U.S. are there, along with other notable Japanese and Japanese Americans in Northern California.

The JBSC has managed and operated the cemetery all this time. However, a series of cascading events have led to JBSC’s current situation.

JBSC was led for many years by Board President Eddie Moriguchi. Mr. Moriguchi, a Certified Public Accountant, supervised the office assistant and external accounting firms. Unfortunately, Mr. Moriguchi suffered a serious stroke in February 2019 that left him unable to continue to oversee corporate activities. Mr. Moriguchi passed away in September 2020.

After Mr. Moriguchi’s death, it was exceptionally difficult for JBSC to bring on new leadership and continue operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dean Hedani, a retired attorney, succeeded Mr. Moriguchi as President of the Board of Directors. Mr. Hedani prepared the financial reports for the Board of Directors monthly meetings. In 2023, Mr. Hedani’s heart condition worsened. The last Board of Directors meeting was July 10, 2023. In November 2023, Mr. Hedani passed away.

 

Further, JBSC Executive Director Seiko Fujimoto has held the part time position since 1989. However, Ms. Fujimoto has been in poor health which caused her to be unable to carry out her duties. She is currently hospitalized in long-term care at Laguna Honda Hospital.

 

To further complicate matters, many of the directors during relevant time periods, were very advanced in age (e.g. 80’s, 90’s and over 100 years), suffer from serious disabilities, and a number have died. Communication became difficult as most of the elderly board members were mainly Japanese-speaking, becoming frail and did not understand how to keep up technologically with online filing and zoom conference calls. Unfortunately, we missed many filing deadlines over the succeeding years.

 

As a result, the situation became overwhelming and JBSC struggled to maintain continuity in administrative oversight and compliance matters. While these issues do not diminish JBSC’s responsibility to address the organization’s obligations, they provide important context for how the organization came to be in its present position.

Today’s Status

Thanks to legal counsel, we have made much progress in restoring our corporate status with the State of California. We have reconstituted our Board of Directors and nearly completed the paperwork to regain our non-profit corporate status. And throughout this legal ordeal, we have continued to ensure that the grounds are well-maintained and plot-owner needs are addressed, all without making withdrawals from our endowment fund. This was made possible by support and donations from the local Japanese American community.

We offer our deepest apologies to the Japanese American community for our current situation. We acknowledge our misjudgment in not seeking assistance earlier when the Board was overwhelmed with the paperwork needed to conform to state standards. We regret that board inaction has contributed to JSBC’s predicament, and are working to resolve the situation and to set up procedures so this never happens again.

The JBSC is receiving pro bono legal advice from Don Tamaki from Minami Tamaki LLP and pro bono media and communications support from media professional Dianne Fukami. Sean Tamura-Sato, Managing Partner of Minami Tamaki LLP has been retained to provide litigation support, the nonprofit corporate Adler Colvin LLP has been engaged to restore JBSC’s corporate and nonprofit status, and cemetery law specialists Gurnee, Mason & Forestiere LLP is providing regulatory advice.

 

The annual JCCCNC cemetery clean-up on May 16 and the Japanese American Religious Federation Memorial Day service on May 25th will still go ahead as scheduled.

If you have questions regarding interments or burials at the Japanese cemetery, please view the FAQ section of the Japanese Cemetery at https://www.japanesecemetery.org/ or contact Wayne Chin at Jikeikai1901@gmail.com.

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How the Community Can Help

There are a series of steps required to restore our license to operate and manage the cemetery and we’ll need community help to accelerate the process. In the coming weeks, we’ll be calling on community assistance to make this happen with specific ways that individuals can help to ensure that the management of this historic site stays within the Japanese American community. We are planning a public town hall meeting next month and will keep you updated. In the meantime, we thank you in advance for your understanding and support during this very challenging period.

Sincerely,
Japanese Benevolent Society of California Board of Directors

Victor Iwamura, President

Edith Moriguchi Horner
Wayne Chin

Yuji Mitani
Seiko Fujimoto

Mark Shigenaga
Kevin Yoza