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The Yomiuri Shimbun Toshiya Omi cleans out the belongings of the deceased in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture.
By Kaisei Muramatsu / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
12:00 JST, January 8, 2025
After retiring as a professional soccer player, Toshiya Omi chose a job “that people don’t want to do” for the next phase of his life.
The 29-year-old former J.League player, who once represented Japan at the youth level, started a company in Yokohama that cleans out the homes of deceased people and helps the families overcome their loss.
On the morning of Dec. 4, Omi was dressed in protective clothing at a house in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture.
“Make sure you close the door immediately after entering the room to keep any smell from escaping,” Omi told his staff.
Four workers were cleaning the house where a man in his 70s who lived alone had died. It had taken about a month to discover his body.
When the front door was opened, a pungent smell hit Omi even through his mask. The workers used medical-grade detergent to clean the floor and sorted items in the house into those to be returned to the man’s family, such as photographs, and those to be recycled or disposed of. Items removed after two days of work amounted to three truckloads.
Omi was born and raised in Kumagaya in the prefecture. Influenced by his older brother, he started playing soccer. When he was in his third year of high school, the Yokohama F. Marinos youth team that he played on won the national championship, and he was selected for the national team for his age group. After enrolling at Senshu University, he was plagued by injuries. He had played in the J3 League’s Y.S.C.C. Yokohama as a substitute player before ending his active career in 2021.
Omi started farming after retirement, but then came across the idea that “I should do a job that people don’t want to do.” Based on his experience of estate clearance as a part-time job, Omi decided to clean out homes where people had died and established Assist Shonan about a year ago. As president, he currently employs two people.
The company has cleaned more than 100 sites. When working at houses, Omi has found various items including a photo of a grandchild of a deceased man who had been estranged from his family, and a diary reading “I had a good life because I had my daughter and grandchild.”
After clearing the houses on behalf of the families of the deceased, Omi tells them every detail of what he found. Some families tell Omi in tears that it cleared the air surrounding the situation, or they found closure.
Cleaning in protective clothing is hard work in the summer, but Omi said: “I think of us as the bereaved families’ teammates. I want to be someone who not only cleans the houses, but also removes the regrets and anxieties of the bereaved families.”
His work is getting on track, and one of Omi’s concerns now is the career development of former athletes who had lived their lives solely for sports. Omi himself did not know how to exchange business cards or use a computer.
Assist Shonan will hire a former athlete this year. Omi wants to help the newcomer become independent after training at his company.
