Abstract
Since the Japanese nation state started in 1868, there have been differences between customs among the Japanese people and legal institutions over 'approval' of death, treatment of the remains and worship of the dead. Although the nation and the people have compromised the differences, from now on the legal institutions have to be more regulated because of the thorough changes of family, community, work environment and etc..
The differences have been found in three phases of death, i. e., (1) 'approval' of death, (2) treatment of the remains and (3) worship of the dead which have been embedded the traditional family system, 'ie'.
On the approval of death the Meiji government made the regulation in which a dead body should be diagnosed by modern medical doctors though all diagnoses could not be done because of the shortage of doctors. In the process of modernization for one century the regulation had been realized and the difference has disappeared. Another big difference occurred in the dispute about cadaver organ transplantation which accompanies a diagnoses of 'brain death'. As a compromise of the long time dispute there are legally two kinds of death, i.e., 'brain death' and 'heart death'.
On the treatment of the remains the big difference was formed in the military system. In the pre-war system the remains and spirits of dead soldiers belonged to the government, and the rights of the soldiers' families were secondary. On the third phase of death, worship of the dead, the spirits of dead soldiers were deified in Yasukuni-jinja, a Shinto shrine though most Japanese dead spirits were worshipped in Buddhism.
Accompanied with globalization of economic systems Japanese social structure is basically changing which certainly brings changes of the Japanese people's custom over death. Now the regulation of the matter becomes much more necessary than before.
