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Fran Lu

A Japanese man has quit the job he has been doing all his life to study baking and pastry so that he could fulfil the dream of his daughter who died from cancer.
Koji Eguchi, 57, has moved many people online by quitting the company he worked for 35 years, after his daughter Honoka passed away from ovarian cancer in August 2022, at the age of 24.
After Honoka was diagnosed with cancer and was told she only had three months to live, Eguchi and his wife Michiyo promised her they would open a family café together to lift her spirits.
They lived up to their promise 28 months after she died.

Eguchi studied Japanese sweets at a culinary school in their hometown in southwestern Japan’s Saga prefecture.
After a year of study, he graduated at the beginning of 2024, among a group of young students.
The couple adapted their home garage to make the café.
After months of meticulous design and renovation, the small and cosy café called Coffee Roast HONO opened in December on Honoka’s birthday.
Eguchi was in charge of preparing the food and drink, while Michiyo tended to the customers.

They said they intended to create a space where Honoka’s friends can come freely and relax.
Many of her friends have helped promote the café on social media. Some also helped with the business.
One of her primary and secondary school classmates told Saga Television that she intended to visit regularly as if it is her “second home”.
The couple have also placed a photo of Honoka on the premises.
Talking about Honoka’s last days, Eguchi still had tears in his eyes, but he said she must be happy that her dream has been fulfilled.
“Running the café feels like the three of us will keep living together,” said Eguchi.
Michiyo said she would work hard to run the outlet well, so that when they meet again in the afterlife, her daughter would tell her: “You have done really well, mum.”
The scene of Honoka’s family and friends working together to fulfill her last wish has touched many.

It was also considered an effective way for the living to cope with their grief.
In 2016, Shanghai mother Yi Jiefang was reported to have spent a decade planting more than one million trees in a desert in China’s northern Inner Mongolia autonomous region, to realise her son’s last wish.
Two weeks before he died in a car accident, he suggested she plant trees in Inner Mongolia to help control sand storms after she retires from job in Japan.
She immediately quit her job and returned to China to set up a volunteer group to plant trees.
She said the decision helped her get over her loss. She also invited other people who lost kids to plant trees.


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People & Culture

57-year-old father leaves job for life to learn baking, pastry skills at culinary school, says move helps family cope with grief at loss of daughter


57-year-old father leaves job for life to learn baking, pastry skills at culinary school, says move helps family cope with grief at loss of daughter.


Japan