New Styles of Funerals and Cemeteries in Contemporary Japan

Abstract

“Ie-no-Haka”, family cemeteries and ancestor worship in modern Japan, were dependent on continuation of succession of “Ie” (Japanese family system), and were the cores of the demand for eternal continuation of the family line. After the W.W. II and high economic growth period, as Japanese family system changed, such obligatory ancestor worship became more informal and more attached to affective feelings toward their deceased close families.
Among civil movements demanding new styles of funerals and cemeteries, such as scattering or collective cemetery in the 1990 s, we pick up two typical cases of such movements. “Moyai-no-kai” and “Soso-no-jiyu-wo-susumeru-kai”. These movements suggest two new directions in order to solve the structural problems lying in the “Ie-no-Haka” system in modern Japan. The former arose to deal with the problem that the succession of “Ie-no-Haka” became difficult today, and the latter arose to deal with the problem that many people can't have their own “Ie-no-Haka”. In these movements, people come to find that funerals and cemeteries should be arranged by their own decision not by their families.