Japanese company turns pets' remains into pearl souvenirs for grieving owners

W/S Pearl producer taking net with oysters from water, Goto Islands, Nagasaki
M/S Producers checking net
M/S Producer extracting cultured pearl
M/S Producer extracting cultured pearl
SOT, Takao Shimizu, CEO, Taga Pearl (Japanese): "This is a pearl farm. We usually produce ordinary pearls, but since last year, we have been making pearls for pets as well. We named them 'Niji no Moridama' [Rainbow pearl amulet in English]."
C/U Takao Shimizu extracting cultured pearl
M/S Takao Shimizu giving cultured pearl to colleague
M/S Producer checking IC chip matching cultured pearl
SOT, Takao Shimizu, CEO, Taga Pearl (Japanese): "The amount of pearl secretion differs according to the four seasons. That's why, under such circumstances, I think that something like a mysterious rainbow colour with seven different colours is born."
M/S Producer checking IC chip matching cultured pearl
W/S Takao Shimizu at farm
W/S Aerial shot of farm *NO SOUND*
W/S Aerial shot of farm *NO SOUND*
W/S Takao Shimizu in laboratory
C/U Takao Shimizu opening oyster
SOT, Ayano Cho, Office Manager, WBE (Japanese): "Inside there is an integrated circuit (IC) chip together with a bone. With this IC chip inside, we can take care of each of them carefully."
M/S Takao Shimizu in laboratory
SOT, Ayano Cho, Office Manager, WBE (Japanese): "We keep eight small bones which have a size of about eight millimetres from the customer's pet."
C/U Takao Shimizu inserting pet bones covered with resin into oyster
SOT, Ayano Cho, Office Manager, WBE (Japanese): "After shaping them into a round shape, which makes it easy for pearl to assimilate, we bring them to Mr. Shimizu, the pearl craftsman, and entrust them to him."
W/S Takao Shimizu at work
C/U Takao Shimizu finishing procedure
M/S Ayano Cho checking the IC chip corresponding to pet bone
C/U Shimizu showing oyster
SCRIPT
A Japanese cosmetics producer offers a unique service for animal lovers mourning the loss of their pets. The firm WBE turns the remains into a pearl necklace, as footage filmed in Goto Islands in the Nagasaki prefecture on Monday shows.
"We usually grow ordinary pearls, but since last year, we have been making pearls for pets as well. We named them 'Niji no Moridama' [Rainbow pearl amulet in English]," said Takao Shimizu, a pearl-producer involved in the project.
His method allows a cultured pearl to be grown from a bone fragment in about a year. The result costs a total of $4,300 (3,870 euros).
"We keep eight small bones which have a size of about eight millimetres from the customer's pet," said Ayano Cho, an office manager at WBE.
A bone fragment from the pet is wrapped in resin so it is not rejected by the oyster. Then the oysters are taken care throughout the year until the pearls are large enough to be used as a souvenir.