The death of actress Yoko Shimada in July last year stunned the nation but not necessarily because she was such a big name.

Shimada was basking in glory in 1981 when she became the first Asian to win the Golden Globe Award for best actress for her role as Mariko in the TV miniseries “Shogun.”

But she was nearly destitute when she died from rectal cancer complications at a Tokyo hospital at the age of 69.

Authorities in the capital’s Shibuya Ward, where Shimada had resided, contacted her relatives, but no one showed up to claim her body.

The ward government kept her body for around two weeks before paying for the cremation in August under the Public Assistance Law and the law on graveyards and burials.

The legislation stipulates that local authorities are obliged to cremate deceased individuals when no one is available to perform funeral services for them.

Under the law, Shibuya Ward officials were required to attend to her case, according to people familiar with the matter.

The number of solitary deaths in Japan has been increasing for years.

Shimada has put a famous face on not only that problem but also the growing issue of people dying with no relative or money to take care of the body.

Statistics indicate that what happened to Shimada will likely become a more frequent occurrence in the coming decades.

MORE SINGLE-PERSON HOUSEHOLDS

Kanae Sawamura, a Japan Research Institute researcher well versed in the issue of preparing for the end of life among elderly singles, said she was stunned to learn that even Shimada, who was a household name, had to be cared for by a local government after she died.

“Her case has heightened awareness among local officials that expanding public support is needed for residents to prepare for their deaths,” she said.

Japan has seen a rise in the number of elderly single-member households with limited means.

And increasingly, they cannot depend on relatives, even if they have them, to take care of their bodies after death.

The national population census in 2020 showed that single-person households accounted for 38 percent of all households in Japan.

The number of households with a single occupant aged 65 or older was around 6.71 million, a surge of about 800,000 from five years earlier when the previous census was held.

Local governments are seeing a surge in cases where they are forced to shoulder cremation and funeral costs of impoverished residents with no relatives.

In fiscal 2021, such cases hit a record 48,622 nationwide, about 10,000 more than 10 years previously, according to preliminary figures released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

The number of unclaimed bodies is projected to rise in the coming decades as Japan’s population continues to age with fewer children and siblings than forebears, and social ties weaken.

Under the Public Assistance Law, local authorities are obliged to offer funeral assistance to bereaved families who cannot afford the costs.

Authorities are also supposed to cover minimal levels of expenses for cremations and funerals of impoverished people with no relatives if a third party, such as a landlord or social worker,
applies for the assistance so that they perform the procedures.

In fiscal 2020, 46,677 such requests were made across Japan, costing local governments a total of more than 9.7 billion yen ($73.3 million).

“The number of people receiving welfare benefits is declining, although cases in need of funeral and cremation funds are expanding,” said an official with the Public Assistance Division of the ministry’s Social Welfare and War Victims’ Relief Bureau. “The most likely cause of the increase is the rising number of people with no kin.”

FINAL PRODUCTION

Shimada, a native of Kumamoto Prefecture on the southern main island of Kyushu, had told people around her that she became estranged from her relatives after her mother died.

Her last work was “Ever Garden,” a film she produced. Released late in 2022, it tells the story of a woman struggling to make a living after her husband, who ran a ryokan inn with her, commits suicide due to serious illness and the inn’s financial struggles amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shimada starred as the widow.

She did not tell the other cast members about her advanced cancer, which was discovered about three years earlier.

During filming, she had to take many medications and had difficulties delivering her lines due to shortness of breath. She also could not eat normally.

After shooting wrapped up, Shimada entered a hospital in Tokyo. She expressed concern about the size of her medical expenses.

Following the cremation, an acquaintance came forward to collect her ashes and place them at her parents’ grave.

UNCOLLECTED REMAINS

In fiscal 2020, 8,338 requests were made to authorities in Tokyo to cover cremation and funeral costs, an increase of 1,721 from five years earlier, a study showed.

That was the most among the nation’s 47 prefectures and 20 government ordinance-designated cities.

A payment of about 200,000 yen is offered, in principle, for public funeral assistance in urban cities under the law. The Tokyo metropolitan government paid 1.72 billion yen annually for such services in fiscal 2020.

“The costs are rising because the population of seniors living by themselves is surging in the capital,” said an official at the Tokyo metropolitan government’s Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health.

A similar trend is occurring in Yokosuka in neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture.

“In bygone years, unidentified bodies accounted for most of the people with no claimants,” said Kazuyuki Kitami, a welfare officer with the Yokosuka city government’s end-of-life planning center. “Nowadays, more than 90 percent of the dead are identified, but no claimants show up to receive their ashes.”

The Civil Law contains a provision that says funeral services will be performed based on tradition. It is customary for family members to hold funeral services for their close relatives.

But the traditional concept of funerals being family affairs is no longer valid in today’s society with so many single-member households, said Midori Kotani, a researcher of thanatology and a representative of a research center for senior citizens’ life and culture in Tokyo.

“Society needs to create a new setup that allows people other than relatives to promptly proceed with the paperwork after somebody dies, under the oversight of a public entity,” she said.