Photo/Illutration Funeral providers are often said to recommend an upgraded altar and coffin for additional charges. Parts of the photo are deliberately blurred. (Yasuhiro Honda)

A record number of complaints have been received over undertakers running misleading ads about affordable funeral services, with some malicious morticians hit with administrative punishments. 

The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan (NCAC) saw its previous mark for complaints over unreasonably expensive funeral services broken in fiscal 2024. 

Data from the NCAC revealed that the problems it received in fiscal 2024 regarding “funeral services” totaled 978, the highest since related statistics became available in fiscal 2010.

Figures were particularly prominent in areas around major cities, including 320 instances in the southern Kanto region near including Tokyo, 187 in the Kinki region and 70 in the northern Kyushu region.

The complaints reached 800 in fiscal 2021, remaining high constantly at 951 in fiscal 2022 and 886 in fiscal 2023.

Most of these detected issues involved complaints over prices. For example, complainants “were charged much more than what I had seen online” or were unable to prevent undertakers from “tacking on unnecessary optional services.”

According to the Consumer Affairs Agency, eight administrative sanctions have been imposed to date on funeral providers that forced users to pay extra charges despite advertising “no additional fees.”

Uniquest Inc., which is known for its Chiisana Ososhiki (Simplified funeral) brand, was ordered to pay a penalty of 101.8 million yen ($688,000) in 2021, while Aeon Life Co. was fined 1.79 million yen in 2019.

Even though falling short of triggering administrative action, potentially illegal advertising practices are rampant among undertakers.

The Kansai Consumer's Support Organization requested in June this year that a company withdraw its family funeral ad from the internet.

The enterprise stressed in the promotional literature that “the prices of our family funerals start from 76,000 yen.”

But the nonprofit group discovered that the package offered at this rate included only cremation services, unlike a typical family funeral that is characterized likewise by holding a wake and a farewell service.

The nonprofit organization therefore contacted the business to warn that the ad’s wording may mislead consumers into believing they could hold a standard family funeral for that price alone.

This was particularly problematic given that customers may wrongly assume that the corporation’s service is significantly more advantageous than it actually is, violating the law against unjustifiable premiums and misrepresentation.

The Kansai Consumer's Support Organization said it later received a response from the company about its “decision to erase (rectify) the post as you kindly pointed out.”

Lawyer Yoshinori Matsuo, who also serves as a director of the NPO, described this large discrepancy between the advertised prices and the actual costs as the “cause of funeral-related trouble” these days.

“Morticians should, whenever possible, make it clear beforehand what users can cover exclusively with the advertised prices and what extra options and fees are necessary for them,” Matsuo said.

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