Various faiths and countries bury their dead in different ways. For most societies religious traditions play a role but with the share of people belonging to religions dropping significantly in recent years, how people bury the dead around the world is changing.

Japan has recently seen that more people are eschewing any kind of ritual at all and going straight for cremation without any service. Previously, services were usually Buddhist or Shinto.

Looking to reverse that trend a group of 13 Japanese morticians and funeral directors toured All Saints Cemetery Nov. 8 to see how Americans traditionally bury their dead, especially through the lens of faith. 

For the past few years, the group has visited countries in Europe and Australia seeking insights into how they can improve their understanding of tradition and death.

“Maybe the last five, 10 years in Japan the funeral tradition has changed a lot. Most people want to have a short funeral instead of the traditional funeral,” said Kenichiro Hashizume, CEO of Grief Support International in Tokyo. “People chose a more direct cremation or direct burial.” 

Hashizume, who attended mortuary school in the United States and returned to Japan 17 years ago, has arranged all of the visits. This year’s trip was organized through the help of the Dodge embalming company in Massachusetts. The company helped the group get in touch with Catholic Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago. 

Roman Szabelski, executive director of Catholic Cemeteries, led participants on a tour that included a mock funeral service inside the mausoleum chapel and a demonstration of how caskets are entombed in the crypts. They also observed a mock ground burial and toured the new St. Francis cremation garden.

Szabelski said that 15,000 people are buried in Catholic Cemeteries’ 45 locations in Cook and Lake Counties each year. At the end of the 2017 fiscal year, cremation burials accounted for just over 26 percent, for a yearly total of over 4,100 cremated remains burials.

The National Funeral Directors Association estimated that in 2017, cremation would make up 51 percent of burials in the United States. In Japan, 99.9 percent of people are cremated. 

Space is at a premium in the nation of islands, which has a population of 127 million people. Tokyo, the nation’s capital, has a population of 9.7 million. In contrast, the city of Chicago has a population of 2.7 million.

In traditional Japanese funerals, families have an overnight wake in their home with the body of their loved one. There is a service the next morning and the body is then taken to the crematory.

An increase in the number of people living alone and in cities with weaker ties to extended families is the major cause of a decline in religious practice around funerals, Hashizume said. 

“My standpoint is education is a key part. Educate the people because they maybe have no experience before. They don’t know what to do so we have to educate them, we have to explain to them at first,” he said. 

“There are similar problems all over the world because some of the people don’t think that religion is the key to helping their life anymore,” Hashizume said. “But some people still have strong faith in the religion as well. We have to deal with so many different phases of the people.”

Sanae Inamura agreed. She operates a funeral business in Saitama, a city that is part of the greater Tokyo area. 

“I sometimes take care of Catholic funerals and sometimes Protestants as well. Even though at home there are more people choosing quick funerals with no services, I feel that a lot of Catholics and Protestants still emphasize the faith tradition. It’s impressive,” she said. 

How the Catholic Cemeteries staff and workers interacted with the people and the beauty and dignity of the buildings impressed Inamura.

“My impression is that the American culture is welcoming. I feel it in everything from the building, the way you talk, the way you deal with the people,” she said. “I feel a lot of the warmness from the people. I would like to bring that back to Japan. Because in Japan most of the time maybe the funeral home and people only pay attention to how to easily and effectively use the facility. But the building itself, like the stained glass we see here, says a lot.”