Death and Funeral Practices in Japan

This book provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the past, present, and future direction of death rituals and deathcare systems within Japan.

As Japan heads toward a precarious future shaped by its super-ageing society, secularisation, and economic stagnation, the socioreligious structures that once organised death and funeral practice are becoming increasingly unstable. In their place, new social structures, technologies, and rituals for the farewell of the dead, handling of cremains, and commemoration of the ancestors have begun to emerge. The work is informed by the authors’ extensive research within Japan’s funeral, cemetery, and memorialisation sectors and the latest Japanese data sources and academic publications, many of which are not currently available in English.

Providing readily accessible and contextualising information, this book will be an essential reference for graduate students and academics, as well as international policymakers and deathcare practitioners.

Hannah Gould is a Cultural Anthropologist working in the areas of death, religion, and material culture, with a regional specialization in North-East Asia.

Aki Miyazawa is a Sociologist of Religion working in the areas of death and funerary practices in contemporary societies.

Shinya Yamada is Professor of Folkloristics at the National Museum of Japanese History and a world-leading expert on death and funerals in Japan.