Japan rejects costly funerals, embraces simple goodbyes
The Japanese have long complained about the cost of the funeral, even before a yen 1.66 billion state funeral for the former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sparked public outcry, the highest in the world. Now, more and more bereaved families are opting for low-key farewells, with the pandemic providing another reason to avoid important ceremonies.
According to Kamakura Shinsho, an online information service specializing in aged care, funerals and burials, the average funeral spend last year was 1.1 million yen, 40% less than in a previous pre-survey survey.
This is still about a quarter of the average annual salary and does not cover additional costs such as offerings to Buddhist monks. Including the additional costs, Japanese funerals cost around 3 million yen before the pandemic, three to four times that spent in the US and Europe, according to a 2020 study by UK-based insurance company SunLife.
Hiroya Shimizu, who hosted his father’s funeral in early 2019, remembers displaying several hearses and flower arrangements, but ultimately felt he had little control over costs.
“It’s not like you can compare prices on Amazon and Yodobashi,” the 57-year-old hotel owner said, referring to a popular e-commerce site. The final bill, he said, was about 3.5 million yen. “You only pay for what you are told.”
Although much of the recent decline has been due to people opting for small-scale ceremonies to avoid the spread of COVID, many say change is both overdue and unlikely that it is completely reversed.
Shinsuke Nakamura, director of Kamakura Shinsho, said Japan’s aging population and the shift to smaller nuclear families are also leading to smaller funerals.
“COVID has just accelerated an already existing trend of people increasingly turning to family-only ceremonies,” he said.
Traditional Buddhist ceremonies, which make up the majority of Japanese funerals, usually take place over two days, with a wake on the first night and a formal burial and cremation the following day.
Attendees are expected to make a cash donation as a condolence, but these contributions are usually more than offset by costs ranging from meals to venue fees.
One expense that many find particularly opaque is the offering of money to Buddhist monks who read sutras in ceremonies and give the dead religious names for the afterlife. Monks are paid an average of around 200,000 yen for such services. There is rarely an explicit price list, but a wider offer is supposed to guarantee a neater religious name.
Most grieving families feel compelled to pay the going rate, as haggling over funeral costs would be considered inappropriate. More than half of respondents in a study released this year by the All Japan Funeral Directors Co-Operation said they were unhappy with the unclear payments.
Japan rejects costly funerals, embraces simple goodbyes
Upselling by funeral homes is also common, according to the National Consumer Affairs Center, which receives hundreds of such complaints each year, including cases of people being forced to opt for larger places or fancier caskets. .
Smaller funerals tend to control these issues. Simple, so-called family funerals can save a lot of money and have become more popular since the pandemic.
