死亡高峯期 日本殯葬業經歷文化轉變
Japan’s Y2tn funeral business is undergoing a wholesale cultural transformation as the world’s third-biggest economy enters its mournful demographic ascent to “peak death”.
隨着日本在人口結構上向“死亡高峯期”攀升，這個世界第三大經濟體2萬億日元的殯葬業正在經歷一場大規模的文化轉變。
The shift comes as Japan enters what actuarial tables show will be a two-decade boom of activity for the industry.
這一轉變發生之際，精算表格顯示，日本殯葬業將進入20年的業務繁榮期。
A persistently low birth rate means Japan’s annual 1.3m deaths already outnumber births by 300,000. The country’s rapidly ageing population puts occupancies at the nation’s mortuaries on course to peak at 1.67m in 2040.
持續的低出生率，意味着日本每年130萬的死亡人數已經比出生人數多出30萬。日本迅速老化的人口結構，令日本殯儀館接收遺體數按照現有趨勢將於2040年達到167萬的峯值。
But while revenues are rising, average mourner numbers have halved since the 1990s. The bereaved have become less enthusiastic about the average Y2.3m ($21,000) cost of a funeral and conventions are being eroded as families question the ceremonies themselves. Securing sustainable profit growth even amid a rising mortality rate could become more difficult, say industry heads.
不過，儘管營收正在攀升，但自上世紀90年代以來，平均送葬人數卻已減半。對於平均230萬日元（合2.1萬美元）的殯葬成本，喪親者也不再像過去那樣熱心；隨着家庭對殯葬儀式本身提出質疑，殯葬習俗也在受到侵蝕。多名業內主管表示，即使是在死亡率攀升的情況下，取得可持續盈利增長的難度可能也會變大。
An unprecedented funeral trade fair in Tokyo in December, and a recent spat between Amazon Japan and a Buddhist group over an online monks-for-hire service hint strongly at an industry scrambling to adapt as Japanese people reassess how to mark the passing of loved ones.
去年12月在東京舉辦的一場史無前例的殯葬業交易會，以及最近亞馬遜日本(Amazon Japan)和一個佛教團體圍繞一項在線和尚預訂服務的爭端，都強烈暗示殯葬業的現狀：在日本人反思該如何紀念至親的離世之際，殯葬業正在匆忙調整。
Surveys on Japan’s death industry are rare but conventional wisdom is that more than 35 per cent of elderly Japanese want only family and close friends at their funerals and at least 8 per cent want no funeral at all.
針對日本殯葬業的調查少之又少。不過，普遍的看法是，有逾35%的日本老年人只希望家人和密友參加葬禮，至少8%的老年人根本就不想要葬禮。
Driving down the attendance rates, though, has been the disappearance of the “duty attendee”. In the past it was quite normal for loyalty-bound employees to troop to the funerals of their bosses’ close relatives or the presidents and family of important customer companies, says Yuichi Noro, president of the country’s largest funeral management group San Holdings.
不過，壓低葬禮出席率的原因，是“禮節性出席者”的消失。日本最大殯葬管理集團璨 Holdings(San Holdings)的副社長野呂裕一(Yuichi Noro)表示，過去，爲顯示忠誠，員工集體出席老闆的近親、或重要客戶企業的社長及其親屬的葬禮，是十分常見的事情。
In a busy year, it was once quite usual for company workers to attend two or three funerals of people they had never met. But work culture has changed. A rising proportion of the workforce is on short-term or part-time contracts and less bound by old conventions.
在過去，企業員工在葬禮多的年頭一年參加兩三個素未謀面的人的葬禮很常見。然而，職場文化已經改變。越來越多的勞工持有的是短期或兼職合同，受舊習俗的束縛沒有那麼大。
“Companies do not feel like families in the way they used to and feelings of loyalty are lower,” said Mr Noro, whose company has become the most aggressive consolidator of the Japanese funeral industry. “Without the duty attendees the atmosphere of funerals has completely changed.”
野呂的公司目前已成爲日本殯葬業最激進的整合者。他說：“企業不再像過去那樣感覺像個家庭，員工的忠誠感降低了。沒有了禮節性出席者，葬禮的氛圍已完全改變。”
Demographics are also forcing a fundamental shift in the way Japan approaches mourning, he added. Life expectancies in the low 80s mean that by the time they die, most Japanese have been retired for nearly two decades and their funerals are no longer padded with ex-colleagues.
他補充說，人口結構的變化也迫使日本悼念亡人的方式出現了根本轉變。80歲出頭的平均壽命，意味着多數人在逝世時已退休近20年，他們的葬禮上不再滿是以前的同事。
