Paper short abstract:

Within the hegemonic population discourse the super-aged society is problematized as a society of many deaths (tashishakai). The Japanese funeral industry is trying to tackle this issue by transferring the responsibility onto the individual through end-of-life-activation (shūkatsu).

Paper long abstract:

In a super-aged society with the baby boomer generation growing old, death is steadily becoming a central issue in public discourse in Japan. While fewer and fewer children are born (shōshika), the number of deaths is constantly growing (tashishakai) with the year 2040 looming as "peak death". Already, in metropolitan areas the dead are competing with the living for the scarce space, whereas graveyards in rural areas are affected by depopulation and are being abandoned or moved to the cities. Future graveyards are conceptualized not in width but in height, with fully automated columbaria conquering the city space.

Within the hegemonic demographic discourse, changes in family structures, such as the tendency to remain single and childless and to die alone (kodokushi), are problematized as risks for the financial and social cohesion of the whole society. One way out has been proposed by the funeral industry, which has developed a program aimed at the individual consumer level. Under the label shūkatsu (終活), individuals are asked to make arrangements for their grave, funeral, inheritance, elderly care and to consider how they want to spend their remaining years of life. This activity, that fits perfectly in the self-management paradigm, whereby individuals are subjected to run their lives as if they were running an enterprise, is slowly becoming a norm that individuals have to follow in order not to be a burden for their family, the community and the state.

In this paper I will ask how the funeral industry envisions the ideal shūkatsu self as a means to grapple with changing consumer attitudes that are jeopardizing its previously secure existence on the one hand, and how the addressed subjects interpret this program in their everyday lives on the other hand. I will further show trends in funeral practices and attitudes towards death, that are shaping land and cityscapes and creating new opportunities for self-expression in death.