Japan’s cut-price morgues cash in on legal loopholes as lonely deaths rise
One Tokyo-based company is offering to do everything from body collection up to ash internment for just US$1,040
Some industry insiders have expressed shock at the trend and are calling for regulation to block potential loopholes, while others point to public apathy as an enabling factor.
The Asahi newspaper reported last week that nondescript industrial buildings in suburban districts were being used to store human remains in refrigerator units. Reporters visited a “makeshift morgue” operated by a private funeral company, which they called “the front line of a shadowy, unregulated industry now flourishing across Japan”.
