TOKYO, June 3, 2024—The number of unclaimed remains in 2022 in Japan jumped 32 percent compared with 2018, according to a newspaper survey published on June 3.
The Yomiuri daily newspaper said its survey of 74 Japanese municipalities taken between February and May 2024 showed a total of 11,602 persons’ remains were unclaimed, up 32 percent from 2018, with big cities like Tokyo, Yokohama and Sapporo showing conspicuous rises – reflecting problems leading to isolated deaths and not claimed by kins.
Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare demographic data showed the 2022 number of deaths at 1,569,050, up 15 percent from 2018, so the survey mirrors unclaimed remains were double the national deaths.
Reasons are diverse and complicated, such as that seniors facing death had been living alone and isolated from relatives and society, the condition that’s becoming increasingly pronounced in Japan as family relations are steadily thinning, as well as the high and growing cost of funeral services. In Tokyo, most crematoriums are owned and managed by a Chinese controlled company that roughly doubled the cremation fees.
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