The number of publicly funded funerals around Japan for financially destitute individuals or unclaimed bodies exceeded 50,000 in fiscal 2022 for the first time, the welfare ministry said.

The central and local governments bore the funeral expenses in 52,561 cases, up by around 3,800 from the previous fiscal year’s 48,789 and the most since such statistics began in 1956, according to the ministry’s preliminary figures.

Total expenditures for the funerals are estimated at roughly 11 billion yen ($73 million).

The funeral assistance system is stipulated under the Public Assistance Law.

According to the system, if a third party, such as a landlord or hospital director, applies to hold a funeral service for a deceased person with no relatives or whose bereaved family members cannot afford the expenses, the central and local governments will cover the costs.

In urban areas, the price is set at around 210,000 yen per funeral, with the central government covering three-quarters and the local government covering one-quarter.

By prefecture, Tokyo had the most publicly funded funerals--a record 9,313 cases--in fiscal 2022, up 889 from the previous fiscal year.

Among government ordinance-designated cities, Osaka topped the list with 5,252, an increase of 312 from the previous fiscal year and also a record high.

The financial burden on the local governments is estimated at roughly 2 billion yen for Tokyo and around 1.1 billion yen for Osaka.

RISE IN UNCLAIMED REMAINS

“Although there is no data indicating a correlation, the increase in funeral assistance may be attributed to a growing number of deaths among needy elderly people,” said an official from the public assistance division of the welfare ministry’s social welfare bureau.

Since January this year, applications for welfare benefits have risen year on year for seven consecutive months, according to the ministry.

Elderly households accounted for 56 percent of the applications, and more than 90 percent of them were single-person households.

Around 1.56 million Japanese nationals died in the country in 2022, and this figure is projected to exceed 1.67 million in 2040.

In Japan, the aging population has led to a higher death rate, accelerating the population decline.

The number of unclaimed bodies has increased so much that municipalities are struggling to secure storage spaces for the cremated remains.

As of October 2021, municipalities nationwide were storing at least 60,000 unclaimed remains, according to the internal affairs ministry.

The number of such remains reached a record high for the second straight year in Osaka city, which tallies the number of unclaimed remains from the past year every August.

City government officials reported 3,149 in 2022 and 3,408 in 2023.

According to the city’s demographic statistics, 31,503 people died in 2021. The remains of roughly one in 11 of them went unclaimed.

The Osaka city government covered the cremation costs of more than 90 percent of them.

Unclaimed remains are stored at seven locations in Osaka city. Once a year, those unclaimed for over a year are moved to a collective site in Osaka’s Abeno Ward for a joint burial.

The city said the site was expanded in 2015 because it had run out of space to store the remains.

EXPERT: CONSIDER USING INSURANCE

“If we continue to assume that family members will conduct funerals, there will be more cases where holding such services becomes difficult,” said Tadayoshi Suzuki, a professor of social welfare at Nagano University.

According to a first-of-its-kind survey that the internal affairs ministry released in March, the number of deceased who had relatives but whose remains were unclaimed was 106,000 over the period from April 2018 to October 2021.

National health insurance and senior health insurance for those 75 and older guarantee around 50,000 yen for funeral expenses. But Suzuki said this amount is not enough to cover the total costs of a funeral.

“It might be worth considering using a framework, such as health insurance, to ensure everyone receives a minimum amount for funeral services, equivalent to the funeral assistance amount of around 210,000 yen,” he said.