世論 What Japan Thinks

iShare recently did one of their trademark curious surveys, this time looking at issues surrounding funerals.

Demographics

Between the 18th and 21st of May 2010 432 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.6% of the sample were male, 32.9% in their twenties, 32.4% in their thirties, and 34.7% in their forties.

Funerals in Japan are a horrendous rip-off, on the whole, especially as many feel they have to call in priests to officiate, who often charge in the millions of yen for their services. I’ve seen people defend this practice by saying that as people are expected to bring a cash gift for the family they can cover expenses; this may be true, but then again one has to give presents back to everyone who gifts, and of course there is ongoing expenses of grave maintenance and annual services for the deceased, which again can run into hundreds of thousands.

And I really ought to link to my brother’s post from three years ago.

Research results

Q1: Have you ever attended a funeral? (Sample size=432)

	All	Male N=249	Female N=183
Yes (to SQ)	92.4%	90.0%	95.6%
No	7.6%	10.0%	4.4%

Q1SQ: Have you ever been involved in the organising of a funeral? (Sample size=399)

	All	Male N=224	Female N=175
Yes	11.8%	12.5%	10.9%
No	88.2%	87.5%	89.1%

Q2: When you pop your clogs, would you want a funeral service? (Sample size=432)

	All	Male N=249	Female N=183
Definitely (to SQ)	6.7%	7.6%	5.5%
If possible (to SQ)	43.3%	42.6%	44.3%
No, don’t want	50.0%	49.8%	50.3%

Some of the main reasons why people wanted a funeral were a wish to properly depart from everyone, to allow relatives to sort out their emotions, to take the opportunity to let people know I was dead. Further reasons were because it’s the custom or what society expects. For those not wanting one, people didn’t feel it necessary, not wanting to burden the relatives, funerals are for the living, not the dead, and just that it is expensive.

Q2SQ: Do you have any wishes regarding the kind of funeral you want? (Sample size=216)

	All	Male N=125	Female N=91
Yes, lots	0.5%	0.0%	1.1%
Yes, some	32.9%	20.8%	49.5%
No, none	66.7%	79.2%	49.5%

The sorts of wishes people had were a modest one, a simple one, a not expensive one, and a family-only affair.

Q3: For your own particular religious sect, do you know roughly how much it costs in total for a funeral service? (Sample size=432)

	All	Male N=249	Female N=183
Know most of the costs	18.8%	19.3%	18.0%
Know some of the costs	20.8%	18.9%	23.5%
Don’t know anything	60.4%	61.8%	58.5%

Q4: For your own particular religious sect, do you know what kinds of procedures must be done for a funeral service? (Sample size=432)

	All	Male N=249	Female N=183
Know most of it	14.6%	14.1%	15.3%
Know some of it	26.9%	25.3%	29.0%
Don’t know any of them	58.6%	60.6%	55.7%

Q5: Do your have money saved up for your own funeral service, cremation, etc? (Sample size=432)

	All	Male N=249	Female N=183
Yes	13.7%	10.8%	17.5%
No	86.3%	89.2%	82.5%

Q6: If one of your family were to pop their clogs suddenly, do you have someone close to you who you could turn to for advice on funeral preparations, financial issues, etc? (Sample size=432)

	All	Male N=249	Female N=183
Yes	61.6%	59.8%	63.9%
No (to SQ)	38.4%	40.2%	36.1%

Q6SQ: If one of your family were to pop their clogs suddenly, do you feel worried about not having someone close to you who you could turn to for advice on funeral preparations, financial issues, etc? (Sample size=166)

	All	Male N=100	Female N=66
Very worried	12.7%	10.0%	16.7%
A little worried	42.8%	40.0%	47.0%
Not worried	44.6%	50.0%	36.4%