Expensive Japanese Funeral
Did you know that the Japanese spend a lot more money for funerals than any other countries in the world?
Why? That’s because Japanese people are more likely to pay attention to how other people see us. Having a low-cost funeral seems to be disgraceful in the eyes of people such as neighbors, relatives, and colleagues. This way of thinking has raised expenses on funerals in Japan. Japan is facing a super-aging society and many people are unhappy about current way of funerals that need an extreme amount of money.
How much money do we need for a funeral in average? It’s amazingly 2,370,000 yen [over $25,000]!! Compared with other countries, it’s obviously by far the most expensive!
Average cost for a funeral
- USA…650,000 yen
- Korea…370,000 yen
- UK…120,000 yen
Most of us don’t prepare enough for the time we die while we are still alive and healthy. When someone dies, survinvg family members have no knowledge about funerals when consulting with a funeral director. That’s why there’s no room for negotiation, no way to take time to compare with other services, and many of us cannot do anything but to accept whatever the funeral director advises. It has been regarded as taboo to discuss how the person wants his or her funeral while he or she is alive. On the other hand it’s also true that many of us have been wondering how we can cope with when it happens.
Aeon has started a portal site that introduces 400 funeral directors throughout Japan. It enables us to contact each funeral director for quotation and we can compare prices among a number of funeral directors at Kakaku dot com and finally make a reservation at the one we choose from.
In spite of such a high price for a funeral, many people are quite unsatisfied with it, because usually it’s a lot of work holding a ceremony for neighbors, relatives or colleagues and so many people who had some relationship with the deceased. It’s no time for the family to mourn and say good bye to the deceased. Reflecting this, these days funerals conducted only by the family member are getting popular. Around the big cities, 30% people even don’t need a wake and memorial service before cremation. They want direct transfer from house or hospital to crematorium. It’s only 180,000 yen. Those who want to make use of such service are not always the poor. The wealthy such as doctor or attorney also like to use it. In fact, the survey tells that more than half of Japanese people do not really want to have a funeral for ourselves.
Visiting family graves from time to time, year after year, from generation to generation…this can be a burden. Some people prefer ash scattering over the ocean (210,000 yen~).
Contributor Bio: Kirin is a Japanese woman spending her life so far somewhere around Tokyo. She now works from home and is also spreading Japanese kawaii culture and etc. through her popular blog, Tokyo Kawaii,etc.
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