Importance of openly talking about “death” with the living : Death Café participants’ views of life and death

Abstract

The Death Café, where people gather to openly discuss death, developed as rise of the death toll makes people more often experience death of friends and family members. While Death Café movement is often introduced in media including TV, newspapers or magazines, they have not explained details like what people aim at attending the DC, what people become aware of through active discussions of “death” and what people find in their views of life and death. To explore the details, the semi-structured interviews were conducted to seven of middle to senior aged participants of the Death Café monthly held in Japan. Analysis used a qualitative and descriptive method of the statements collected from the interviews identified four constructs as “views of life and death gained through their discussions about death”. Each construct not only changes their views of death but also helps them live their lives more extensively with flexible strength till the last moment. Despite the “ominous” name, the research revealed that Death Café in fact provides opportunities to actively engage with “death education”．