[Feature: Considering the "Mass-Death Society"] Shinya Yamada: The Mass-Death Society and the Transformation of Funerary Rites—How Will Funerals Change?

According to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's "Summary of the 2024 Vital Statistics Monthly Report (Preliminary Figures)," the number of deaths reached 1,605,298, finally exceeding 1.6 million. The number of deaths is expected to continue increasing, peaking at over 1.66 million annually in 2040, and is projected to remain in the 1.5 to 1.6 million range until 2070 (2023 White Paper on the Aging Society).

The overwhelming majority of the deceased are elderly. Those aged 75 and older account for 80% of deaths, and when including those aged 65 and older, the figure reaches 92%, showing that almost all deaths are among the elderly.

Furthermore, among households including elderly members, single-person households and couple-only households each account for 30%. Additionally, the number of elderly people without close relatives is increasing. In this aging society where individualization has progressed, how people face death and are sent off—specifically, how funerals are conducted now—has become a social issue. I would like to first organize these circumstances and then consider the background and future challenges.

Current funerals are basically undergoing a process of downsizing and simplification, which is spreading nationwide. While some regions have seen a slight return to previous forms following the COVID-19 pandemic, it is undeniable that this trend is generally progressing.

The downsizing of funerals began in the late 1990s when bereaved families started declining attendance from people other than relatives. At the time, conducting a funeral with only close relatives without issuing an obituary to avoid general mourners was called "missō" (private funeral). However, that term had a negative connotation. When the term "kazoku-sō" (family funeral) was coined around 2000, it spread rapidly due to its positive image. However, because the image preceded a clear definition, the scope of attendance remains ambiguous and there is still a sense of confusion.

Simplification is also progressing, and diverse forms are being selected. Since the 2000s, ordinary people have begun practicing "chokusō" (direct cremation), where only cremation is performed without a ceremony; in Tokyo, this is currently said to account for 20% to 30% of funerals. Additionally, "ichinichi-sō" (one-day funeral), where the funeral and farewell ceremony are held without a wake, gained significant recognition and spread after the pandemic. Furthermore, "kurikomi hatsunanoka," where the seventh-day memorial service is incorporated into the funeral time, is spreading mainly in the Kanto region, leaving some bereaved families confused about which form to adopt.

This downsizing and simplification of funerals was a result of people's sense of burden and discomfort regarding the farewell-centered funerals that were the general form nationwide. Conventional farewell ceremonies spread across the country during the post-war period of high economic growth. Replacing the funeral procession, which was once the central rite, they were extremely rational rituals that allowed many people to be treated equally by enabling people with various relationships to attend and pay their respects at the same time. Regardless of the depth of the relationship—from bereaved family and relatives to workplace colleagues, local residents, and friends—everyone could gather to offer incense or flowers to the coffin, mortuary tablet, and portrait placed before the altar to bid farewell to the deceased. The bereaved family only needed to receive condolences and express gratitude, making it possible to handle a large number of mourners.

Since the period of high economic growth, funerals became bloated as venues for demonstrating social prestige. Regarding funeral formats, Buddhist funerals continued to be held even after the post-war abolition of the "ie" (family) system. When people moved to cities and had no family temple (bodaiji), they became parishioners of nearby temples or used monks introduced by funeral directors as officiants. To show social status and prestige, people also received high-ranking posthumous names (kaimyō), such as those including the title "in-gō." Originally, high-ranking posthumous names were determined by one's daily relationship with and contributions to the temple, but for new people with no prior relationship, contribution could only be made through monetary offerings (fuse), which led to the issue of "posthumous name fees."

Furthermore, the number of mourners increased. While traditional local communities weakened, workplace colleagues of the deceased or the chief mourner became actively involved in funerals. Under Japanese-style management, companies actively participated in employees' funerals, with many colleagues attending and sometimes organizing the funeral. Obituaries circulated via corporate LANs increased attendance, and the number of people attending out of social obligation without directly knowing the deceased gradually grew.

To accommodate large numbers of mourners, the outsourcing of funerals progressed, moving from private homes to funeral halls. This was also because the trend toward private rooms in housing made it physically and emotionally difficult to accept many mourners. In rural areas, the shift to funeral halls occurred due to motorization and the need for parking spaces.

As funerals became increasingly bloated, the rise in attendance out of obligation and the need for hospitality became a burden for both mourners and bereaved families. This led to doubts about existing farewell ceremonies, resulting in declined attendance and downsizing. With the collapse of the bubble economy, the breakdown of the lifetime employment system, and the increase in non-regular employment, attendance by workplace colleagues disappeared, further advancing downsizing.

Furthermore, the fact that almost all the deceased are elderly has contributed to the decrease in mourners. For example, when someone dies at age 80 or older, the deceased's siblings and friends are often also elderly and find it difficult to attend. Additionally, due to the declining birthrate, the number of relatives in younger generations, such as nephews, nieces, and grandchildren, has significantly decreased. In many cases, the children of the deceased are also retired, so there is no attendance from workplace colleagues. These circumstances are also factors in the downsizing of funerals.

This decrease in mourners has eliminated the need to consider social appearances or the evaluation of others. Consequently, it has become easier to proceed with simplification based on the choices of the deceased or the chief mourner. Moreover, the prolongation of nursing care and medical treatment has led to economic exhaustion, with an increasing number of cases where funeral costs are felt as a burden.

As described above, while the social structure itself changed due to the post-war abolition of the family system and the shift to nuclear families, the only options for funerals and graves remained choosing family-style funerals and building family graves. However, the increase in income during the high economic growth period made it possible to compensate for these strains. But in the 1990s, with the progress of the declining birthrate, aging population, and globalized economy, these strains were exposed. People were economically exhausted, leading to a rapid transformation of funerals.

Currently, views on family are also transforming. There are many people who are unmarried, people who have no children even if married, or people whose relationships with their children have weakened due to divorce or remarriage. Furthermore, the diversification of gender identity has given rise to various forms of partnership.

In such circumstances, human relationships other than traditional blood ties are important, yet the execution of funerals has become limited to family only. When there are no children to serve as the chief mourner, conducting a funeral becomes extremely difficult. For example, even if there are nephews or nieces, there are increasing cases where they do not take custody of the body or remains, showing that funerals still cling solely to blood ties.

In this context, the increase in deceased persons with no one to claim them has become a social problem. In 2025, a project commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare reported that there are an estimated 40,000 or more unclaimed deceased persons annually. Although their identities are known, because there are no close relatives to conduct a funeral, municipalities cremate them and store the remains. Such deaths have been increasing since the 1990s, mainly in urban areas, necessitating new responses. However, under the current legal system, dealing with the deceased is strictly something that close relatives should do, and administrative responses are considered temporary measures until the body is claimed. In other words, because these have been treated as exceptional cases, the rapid increase in such deaths is causing confusion and becoming a social issue.

In this environment, new responses are gradually emerging. For example, Yokosuka City started an Ending Plan Support Project in 2015. This project targets low-income elderly people living alone with no relatives and is a system for expressing and realizing their wishes regarding end-of-life and post-death matters. City officials, funeral directors, and legal professionals consult to create living wills, secure informants for the time of death, and determine the nature of funerals and interment, resulting in pre-mortem contracts and support plans. A characteristic point of this project is that information is shared between the city and funeral directors. If a person becomes critically ill at night or on a holiday when the city office cannot respond, medical institutions can contact the funeral director to grasp information such as the person's wishes regarding life-prolonging treatment. This is possible because funeral directors operate 24 hours a day. In this way, the wishes of the individual can be reflected even without close relatives, at least avoiding becoming an "unconnected" (muen) deceased person mechanically. This system is gradually spreading to other municipalities, and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is also conducting institutional reviews regarding the delegation of post-death affairs such as identity guarantees and funerals.

On the other hand, people other than blood relatives have begun to be newly involved in funerals. Even if a funeral is downsized, for people with wide social relationships, even if the funeral is a family funeral, a ritual to mourn the deceased called an "obwakai-kai" (farewell party) is often held afterward with eulogies, flower offerings, and food and drink. Particularly in the case of organizational funerals, which previously took the form of a private funeral followed by a formal funeral, it is now common for the funeral to be a family funeral followed by a farewell party hosted by the organization.

However, in the case of a farewell party, it is modern in the sense that it can be organized not only by the bereaved family but also by various people and organizations, such as the organization the deceased belonged to or friends.

Furthermore, the venue for funerals is changing, leading to the development of new places for sending off the deceased. These are elderly care facilities and medical facilities. In some of these facilities, after providing end-of-life care, farewell parties are held upon the resident's departure involving staff and other residents, and in some cases, the funeral itself is conducted. Farewell parties have no specific religious ritual; they are places to talk about memories of the deceased or place handmade flowers made of tissue paper into the coffin, and the format is not specifically defined.

Some elderly care facilities have communal ossuaries or graves. After a funeral at the facility, those who wish can have their remains interred there, and subsequent memorial services may also be held at the facility.

One occasionally sees opinions easily seeking a return to the past family system or funeral formats, but in a social structure that has changed this much, we can no longer return to the past. On the other hand, while there are efforts to build mechanisms for identity guarantee contracts in old age and post-death affairs delegation contracts to encourage people without close relatives to sign them, this is not an issue that can be reduced solely to the self-responsibility of the individuals involved.

In the first place, humans were able to recognize death by realizing it is a universal phenomenon through the deaths of others. However, because recognizing death brought new grief and suffering, funerary rites were created to cope with that death. In other words, the recognition of and response to death have been conducted as social activities, and we need to continue thinking about this as a whole society.

Ultimately, based on a calm assessment of the current social situation, we need to rethink as a whole society a new mechanism where people can face death with peace of mind and be sent off and mourned with dignity.

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