Close together and far apart: necrosocialities in urban Japan

Product details:

Author: Fuyuki Makino, Jason Danely & Yiannis Papadakis

Publisher: Japan Forum, Volume 37, Issue 1 (2025) / Taylor & Francis Online

Language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2025.2486000

Abstract:

Closeness determines the possibilities of the dead to be materially and spiritually cared for by the living and to receive the consolation of an afterlife among deceased family, friends, or pets, rather than strangers. However, although current mortuary sites have responded to the rapid social and demographic changes over the last few decades by offering alternatives to traditional constructions of necrosocial closeness, they have also created new exclusionary patterns based on purchasing capacity. In order to understand how beliefs and values of necrosocial closeness are negotiated within physical and financial limitations, we focus on case studies of two major urban cemeteries in Tokyo. Based on site visits, interviews with staff, and conversations with bereaved individuals, we expand the concept of necrosocialities to include not only the relationships between the living that coalesce around death, and the relationships sustained between the living and the dead through mortuary practices, but also the material and symbolic constructions of (assumed) relationships among the dead themselves. We place this discussion in a comparative perspective, drawing from primary research in Cyprus (a Mediterranean society) and Denmark (a northern European welfare state), societies with different care systems. We conclude that the systemic nature of exclusion of socially marginalized people from necrosocial closeness constitutes a form of ungrievability, and that a framework built around necrosocial closeness is critical to creating more just, inclusive and accessible post-death arrangements with implications for broader issues of care inequality.