International Research Trends on the Death Café : Explore the Potential of Death Education from a Lifelong Learning Perspective

Abstract

  This paper examines international research trends surrounding death cafés. A death café is an important means of promoting death education among the general public, although such cafés remain experimental in Japan. At the same time, the importance of introducing a lifelong learning perspective into death education has been stressed. This paper explores the potential for approaching death education in the context of lifelong learning.

  Using VOSviewer software, this study visualized the temporal trends and keyword associations of the existing research on death cafés. The selected studies were categorized based on their target participants, producing three distinct categories: the general public, healthcare and caregiving professionals, and disadvantaged groups.

  By analyzing literature reviews on death cafés, this study highlights the increasing segmentation of target groups and the role of death cafés in community building and creating safe spaces for socially vulnerable individuals. In relation to lifelong learning, two key research directions are presented: (1) exploration of the qualities that are required of learners and the forms of learning that are necessary to create meaningful interactions in death cafés tailored to specific target groups and (2) an examination of the impact that Death Cafés may have on ensuring the right to death education for socially vulnerable individuals together with their contribution to community building.