Japan's funeral sector adapts as ‘peak death' looms（413 words）

By Leo Lewis in Tokyo

Japan's funeral business is undergoing a wholesale cultural transformation as the world's third-biggest economy enters its mournful demographic ascent to “peak death”.

The shift comes as Japan enters what actuarial tables show will be a two-decade boom of activity for the industry.

A persistently low birth rate means Japan's annual 1.3m deaths already outnumber births by 300,000. The country's rapidly ageing population puts occupancies at the nation's mortuaries on course to peak at 1.67m in 2040.

But while revenues are rising, average mourner numbers have halved since the 1990s. The bereaved have become less enthusiastic about the average Y2.3m ($21,000) cost of a funeral and conventions are being eroded as families question the ceremonies themselves. Securing sustainable profit growth even amid a rising mortality rate could become more difficult, say industry heads.

An unprecedented funeral trade fair in Tokyo in December, and a recent spat between Amazon Japan and a Buddhist group over an online monks-for-hire service hint strongly at an industry scrambling to adapt as Japanese people reassess how to mark the passing of loved ones.

Surveys on Japan's death industry are rare but conventional wisdom is that more than 35 per cent of elderly Japanese want only family and close friends at their funerals and at least 8 per cent want no funeral at all.

Driving down the attendance rates, though, has been the disappearance of the “duty attendee”. In the past it was quite normal for loyalty-bound employees to troop to the funerals of their bosses' close relatives or the presidents and family of important customer companies, says Yuichi Noro, president of the country's largest funeral management group San Holdings.

In a busy year, it was once quite usual for company workers to attend two or three funerals of people they had never met. But work culture has changed. A rising proportion of the workforce is on short-term or part-time contracts and less bound by old conventions.

“Companies do not feel like families in the way they used to and feelings of loyalty are lower,” said Mr Noro, whose company has become the most aggressive consolidator of the Japanese funeral industry. “Without the duty attendees the atmosphere of funerals has completely changed.”

Demographics are also forcing a fundamental shift in the way Japan approaches mourning, he added. Life expectancies in the low 80s mean that by the time they die, most Japanese have been retired for nearly two decades and their funerals are no longer padded with ex-colleagues.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1．According to article, how long could the funeral industry keep prosperous?

A．10 years

B．2 years

C．20 years

D．200 years

答案

2．When will the occupancies at the mortuaries reach peak in Japan?

A．2040

B．2036

C．2090

D．2030

答案

3．Who can be hired at the funeral by Amazon Japan?

A．priests

B．monks

C．mourners

D．actors

答案

4．Why the attendance rates drive down now?

A．most of people want no funeral at all

B．the disappearance of close relatives

C．the atmosphere of funerals has completely changed

D．the disappearance of the “duty attendee”

答案