Japan expects its population to shrink by nearly 30 million people over the next 50 years, with a thriving market for funerals, graves, and anything related to the afterlife. Funeral business fairs and "end-of-life seminars" are becoming popular events, offering both traditional and high-tech services and products. Participants can climb into a coffin for a personal test, have their funeral portraits taken after a beauty session, shop for shrouds from a company called "Final Couture," or buy a plot in a modern indoor multi-story cemetery that robotically retrieves tombstones for mourners, based on the swipe of an identity card.
Modern End-of-Life Services in Japan
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Noriaki Iwashima looks out of a coffin during an end-of-life seminar held by Japan's largest retailer Aeon Co in Tokyo on October 24, 2014. Funeral arrangements are normally left to those who have been left behind but the latest trend in Japan, which literally translates to "End of life" preparations, is for the aging to prepare their own funerals and graves before they set off on their journey to the great beyond. #
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Junkoh Nagakura prays at the "Ruriden", a cemetery that uses high-powered LED lights to illuminate over 2,000 Buddha statues carved in crystals, in downtown Tokyo on October 27, 2014. #
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Yukiko Kimura (right) walks with her sister-in-law Kiyoko Matsuura (center) and Kiyoko's husband Yoshiharu Matwsuura after they prayed for Yukiko's late husband Mitsugi at the Ryogoku Ryoen, a multi-story vault-style graveyard, in downtown Tokyo on October 27, 2014. #
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A staff member demonstrates how to use a modern tomb that robotically retrieves the correct tombstone or urn based on which identity card is provided, at Ryogoku Ryoen, a vault-style graveyard, in Tokyo on October 27, 2014. #
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Yukiko Kimura (right) prays for her late husband Mitsugi with Mitsugi's sister Kiyoko Matsuura in front of a modern tomb in Ryogoku Ryoen, a multi-story vault-style graveyard in Tokyo, on October 27, 2014. #
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Natsumi Niki stands in a coffin before lying down in it to test it during an end-of-life seminar held by Japan's largest retailer Aeon Co in Tokyo on October 24, 2014. #
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A woman has her hair styled before sitting for a photograph that will be used for her deceased portrait, at the annual "Shukatsu Festa 2014" funeral business fair in Tokyo on August 24, 2014. Some 50 funeral and aging business companies including religious bodies exhibited their latest products and services at the one day event which was expected to attract 5,000 visitors. #
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A woman displays a dress for the "last journey" after death, made by shroud maker "Final Couture" at the annual "Shukatsu Festa 2014" funeral business fair in Tokyo on August 24, 2014. #
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