Death and dying in contemporary japan

259 Pages·2014·2.412 MB·English

by  Routledge.;Suzuki, Hikaru

Death and Dying in Contemporary Japan
This book, based on extensive original research, explores the variousways in
which Japanese people think about death and how they approach the process
of dying and death. It shows how new forms offuneral ceremonies havebeen
developed by the funeral industry, how traditional grave burial is being
replaced in some cases by the scattering of ashes and forest mortuary ritual,
and how Japanese thinking on relationships, thevalueof life, and the afterlife
are changing. Throughout, it assesses how these changes reflect changing
social structures and social values.
Hikaru Suzuki is a research associate at the University of Sydney, Australia.
She is the author of The Price of Death: The Funeral Industry in Con-
temporary Japan, Stanford, 2000.
Japan Anthropology Workshop Series
Series editor:
Joy Hendry, Oxford Brookes University
Editorial Board:
Pamela Asquith, University of Alberta
Eyal Ben Ari, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hirochika Nakamaki, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka
Kirsten Refsing, University of Copenhagen
Wendy Smith, Monash University
Founder Memberof the Editorial Board:
Jan van Bremen, University of Leiden
A Japanese View of Nature
The World of Living Things
Kinji Imanishi
Translated by Pamela J. Asquith, Heita Kawakatsu, Shusuke Yagi and
Hiroyuki Takasaki
Edited and introduced by Pamela J. Asquith
Japan’s Changing Generations
Are Young People Creating a New Society?
Edited by Gordon Mathews and Bruce White
The Care of the Elderly in Japan
Yongmei Wu
Community Volunteers in Japan
Everyday Stories of Social Change
Lynne Y. Nakano
Nature, Ritual and Society in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands
Arne Røkkum
Psychotherapy and Religion in Japan
The Japanese Introspection Practice of Naikan
Chikako Ozawa-de Silva
Dismantling the East–West Dichotomy
Essays in Honourof Jan van Bremen
Edited by Joy Hendry and Heung Wah Wong
Pilgrimages and Spiritual Quests in Japan
EditedbyMariaRodriguezdelAlisal,PeterAckermannandDoloresMartinez
The Culture of Copying in Japan
Critical and Historical Perspectives
Edited by Rupert Cox
Primary School in Japan
Self, Individuality and Learning in Elementary Education
Peter Cave
Globalisation and Japanese Organisational Culture
An Ethnographyof a Japanese Corporation in France
Mitchell W. Sedgwick
Japanese Tourism and Travel Culture
Edited by Sylvie Guichard-Anguis and Okpyo Moon
Making Japanese Heritage
Edited by Christoph Brumann and Robert A. Cox
Japanese Women, Class and the Tea Ceremony
The voices of tea practitioners in northern Japan
Kaeko Chiba
Home and Family in Japan
Continuity and Transformation
Edited by Richard Ronald and Allison Alexy
Abandoned Japanese in Postwar Manchuria
The lives of warorphans andwives in two countries
Yeeshan Chan
Tradition, Democracy and the Townscape of Kyoto
Claiming a Right to the Past
Christoph Brumann
Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan
Soka Gakkai Youth and Komeito
Anne Mette Fisker-Nielsen
Language, Education and Citizenship in Japan
Genaro Castro-Vázquez
Death and Dying in Contemporary Japan
Edited by Hikaru Suzuki

Death and Dying in
Contemporary Japan
Edited by
Hikaru Suzuki
Firstpublished2013
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2013selectionandeditorialmaterial,HikaruSuzuki;individualchapters,
thecontributors
Therightoftheeditortobeidentifiedastheauthoroftheeditorial
material,andoftheauthorsfortheirindividualchapters,hasbeenasserted
inaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,Designsand
PatentsAct1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedor
utilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,now
knownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orin
anyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwriting
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Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksor
registeredtrademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanation
withoutintenttoinfringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
DeathanddyingincontemporaryJapan/editedbyHikaruSuzuki.
p.cm.–(Japananthropologyworkshopseries)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Funeralritesandceremonies–Japan.2.Death–Socialaspects–Japan.3.
Undertakersandundertaking–Japan.4.Japan–Sociallifeandcustoms.I.
Suzuki,Hikaru.
GT3284.A2D432012
393.0952–dc23
2012018116
ISBN:978-0-415-63190-7(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-09542-3(ebk)
TypesetinTimesNewRoman
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
To my father, mother, and sister who have departed

Contents
List of illustrations xi
Notes on contributors xiii
Acknowledgements xvi
Preface xvii
Introduction: making one’s death, dying, and disposal in
contemporary Japan 1
HIKARUSUZUKI
PARTI
Meaning of life and dying in contemporary Japan 31
1 Death and ‘the pursuit of a life worth living’ in Japan 33
GORDONMATHEWS
2 Dying in Japan: into the hospital and out again? 49
SUSANORPETTLONG
3 Sarariiman suicides in Heisei Japan 64
SAWAKUROTANI
PARTII
Professionalization of funerals 81
4 Working of funeral homes: between dignity of death and
commercialism in work for the dead 83
DAISUKETANAKA
5 Funeral-while-alive as experiential transcendence 102
HIKARUSUZUKI