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August 13, 2026
 

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DEATH

The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
COMMUNITY / Issues
Aug 11, 2026
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The question can be a difficult one for many, particularly those with religious beliefs that might not conform with how death is traditionally handled in Japan.
Nearly 60,000 people age 65 or older were found dead alone in their homes last year, with many of them discovered more than a week after they died.
JAPAN / Society
Apr 17, 2026
Some 77,000 people found dead alone in their homes in 2025
People age 65 or older accounted for three-quarters of these cases of solitary deaths.
Medical academic societies are proposing new guidelines for life-sustaining treatment, focusing more on a patient's will and prior intentions.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Mar 18, 2026
New guidelines for life-sustaining treatment proposed in Japan
The recommendations do not define the end of life but focus on procedures for deciding whether to continue treatment after discussions with patients and families.
An app called ¡°Are you dead¡± targeted at people living alone has gone viral in China, with surging downloads and widespread commentary on social media.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Jan 14, 2026
¡®Are you dead?¡¯ Chinese app for single living goes viral
The surge in popularity has prompted the developer to introduce a subscription fee and change the app¡¯s name for a global ?audience.
In pet-loving Japan, the ways owners say goodbye to their dearly departed animals can mirror the ways they bid farewell to other humans.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Nov 29, 2025
In Japan, beloved pets receive human-style farewells
Japan has the highest rate of cremation in the world, and increasingly, that applies to departed pets as well.
An instructor touches up a mannequin in a coffin during a funeral administration class at the Busan Institute of Science and Technology in Busan.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2025
Death becomes a growing business in aging, lonely South Korea
Single-person households now account for around 42% of all homes in South Korea, giving rise to a new profession: cleaners called in to clean homes after their occupants have died.
An employee mops the floor in front of a retail store selling black clothing to mourn the death of Thailand's former Queen Sirikit, at a shopping mall in Bangkok on Thursday.
BUSINESS
Nov 3, 2025
In the black: The business of mourning Thailand¡¯s queen mother
The royal family holds a central place in Thai society, with portraits of its members seen in homes, offices and public spaces across the country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping after a group photograph before a military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan and the end of World War II, in Beijing, on Wednesday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Politics
Sep 3, 2025
Hot mic catches Xi and Putin talking about organ transplants and immortality
The Chinese and Russian leaders, both 72, spoke of technology that could help humans live up to 150 years.
Foreign tourists visit a park near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in August.
JAPAN
Sep 3, 2025
Anger in Japan after Instagrammer drinks burial site offering
On Tuesday, the Australian Embassy warned on Facebook that travelers must ensure ¡°appropriate behavior¡± while visiting Japan, without explicitly referring to the incident.
Among elderly people age 65 and over, the share of single-person households jumped from 5.0% to 12.1% between 1995 to 2020.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 27, 2025
Use of deceased¡¯s person¡¯s savings for cremation allowed without heirs¡¯ consent
The move is aimed at reducing the financial burden on municipalities, which have often shouldered burial or cremation costs.
Cases of cancer patients and doctors having conversations about where the patient wanted to spend his or her last days came to 52.9% in 2021, up from 35.7% in the previous survey.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 3, 2025
About half of people who died from cancer discussed last days with doctors
About 60% of cancer patients were able to spend their last days at places where they wished to be, a report has shown.
A Buddhist monk performs a ceremony for lost souls at a property which is classified as a <i>jiko?bukken</i>, or a "misfortunate property" where deaths have occurred, in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, on May 8.
JAPAN / Society
Jul 1, 2025
As property prices soar in Japan, the taint of death may not deter some buyers
Investors attracted by potential high yields increasingly do not care about a property¡¯s grim history, mostly because they are unlikely to live there themselves.
Hiroshi Matsumoto, a professor at the University of Osaka who has performed autopsies on bodies suspected to have been involved in criminal cases, believes it's of the utmost importance to nurture people who can do such work.
JAPAN
May 2, 2025
Osaka institute nurtures forensic pathologists amid a low autopsy rate
Even though the number of forensic pathologists is on the rise, there were only 173 such people nationwide as of April last year, with nine prefectures having just one each.
While AI-generated simulations of deceased loved ones may offer comfort, they raise ethical concerns about consent, reality distortion and the human experience of grief.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 9, 2025
AI resurrecting the dead threatens our grasp on reality
Experts warn that AI-driven digital immortality could distort reality and emotional well-being, requiring safeguards against unhealthy dependence.
Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
LIFE / Lifestyle / Longform
Mar 31, 2025
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan
A growing industry quietly erases the final traces of those who die alone, exposing deep societal fractures.
Kodai Furutani, the assistant chief priest at Ryugasan Unmon Temple in Annaka, Gunma Prefecture, is working to become an interfaith chaplain.
JAPAN
Feb 18, 2025
Monk in chaplain training urges people to face death and live life
There is a deep-seated idea in Japan that a monk being seen at a hospital is a bad omen, as their presence reminds patients and medical staff of death.
Those who lived in Â鶹´«Ã½ Nara Period, which lasted from the year 710 to 794, by and large knew themselves to be blessed. It wasn¡¯t just those in power who felt it, either. From nobles to commoners, the poets seemed to have democratized joy itself.
JAPAN / History / The Living Past
Jan 17, 2025
From Genji to ¡®hikikomori,¡¯ how we make peace with disappearing
Â鶹´«Ã½ reverence for impermanence reveals a profound connection between beauty and loss, from poetic musings to spiritual retreats, echoing in modern expressions of solitude.
DOPS Director Dr. Jim Tucker (back row, from left), David Acunzo, Marina Weiler, Philip Cozzolino (front row, from left) Marieta Pehlivanova and Elliot Gish, pose for a photo on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, on July 15. Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the "beyond¡± possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
WORLD / Society
Jan 4, 2025
Do you believe in life after death? These scientists study it.
Is reincarnation real? Is communication from the ¡°beyond¡± possible? A small set of academics are trying to find out, case by case.
One researcher claims that the much-touted long lifespans of Japan, Italy and other countries may be propped up by faulty data.
LIFE / Lifestyle
Dec 25, 2024
The secret to living to 110? Bad record-keeping, says Ig Nobel Prize winner.
The true secret to extreme longevity seems to be to ¡°move where birth certificates are rare, teach your kids pension fraud and start lying,¡± the researcher has said.
Students at Hiroshima University¡¯s School of Dentistry offer silent prayers for the donors of bodies before they practice anatomy on the cadavers in late October.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional Voices: Chugoku
Dec 16, 2024
In death, body donors become silent teachers for medical students
Practical training on cadavers significantly increases the understanding of the human body, says one professor.
Gut bacteria may be behind many of Â鶹´«Ã½ colorectal cancer cases
A Japanese research team found that a toxin produced by certain E. coli strains, colibactin, caused genetic mutations in nearly half of colorectal cancer cases studied
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
She is Russia¡¯s richest woman. Her business empire is going up in flames.
Tatyana Kim, the head and co-founder of Wildberries, speaks about Ukrainian drone attacks on the company&#039;s warehouses in the course of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, at an unidentified location, in this still image from a handout video released on July 31.
Severe tropical storm Chan-hom makes landfall near Tokyo
Severe Tropical Storm Chan-hom made landfall around Ibaraki Prefecture, near Tokyo, on Tuesday night.
What Â鶹´«Ã½ language rules for permanent residency should look like
Potential health care workers hoping to find work in Japan take Japanese language instruction in Jakarta. Not all applicants for permanent residency should be expected to reach this level of proficiency.
Where do foreign residents in Japan want to die?
The Yokohama Foreign General Cemetery is one of the few cemeteries in Japan that allows burials, albeit with conditions for the deceased, including foreign nationality and permanent residency in Kanagawa Prefecture.
¡®Total whiplash¡¯: Foreign residents react to Â鶹´«Ã½ changing permanent residency rules
The entrance to the Tokyo Immigration Bureau in Minato Ward, Tokyo, in March. For some foreign residents of Japan, tightening measures for permanent residency have become one factor in a broader calculation over whether remaining in the country makes financial sense over the long term.
As Â鶹´«Ã½ concrete jungles sizzle, urban forestry offers an all-natural fix
People and birds find relief from the sun in Tokyo&#039;s Nakano Ward earlier this month. While experts agree that urban greening is crucial to mitigating the impact of climate change, trees are becoming even more scarce in Japanese cities.
Â鶹´«Ã½ brewers experiment with a secret ingredient: music
At Smoke Craft, a craft beer brewery in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, music isn&#039;t just a background to the brewing process ¡ª it&#039;s an ingredient.
As countries ban social media for children, Japan mulls a different approach
Data from NTT Docomo¡¯s Mobile Society Research Institute released in June found that 55% of respondents across all age groups said they fiddled with their phones when they had nothing to do, even when another person was in front of them.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo¡¯s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo¡¯s ¡®stadium of desire¡¯

Longform

Disaster relief workers Taichi Kato (left) and Seiji Yoshimura enter the collapsed living quarters at Kyuganji temple in Yatsushiro, Kumamoto Prefecture.
What Kumamoto revealed about Â鶹´«Ã½ earthquake readiness
By Alex K.T. Martin

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