Tokyo is drafting a proposal to build a series of small-scale publicly run crematoriums across its 23 wards, as the number of deaths outpaces the facilities available to cremate them. The metropolitan government will put the new sites where they are needed most and may relax zoning rules so they can fit.
Cremation is the common method of burial in Japan, which keeps cemetery space small but leaves the country dependent on a limited stock of crematoriums. Deaths are already running above 1.5 million a year, and estimates put the annual figure at a peak of 1.65 million in 2040.
The current pace suggests Japan will pass that estimate well before then. Large cities are feeling the strain first.
Crematoriums in Chiba Prefecture have issued waits of as many as 10 days, according to reports, and prices have risen with demand. Building more is slow work: a crematorium is expensive to set up, and zoning rules make it hard to find anywhere to put a facility for burning human remains.
Private stopgap: the corpse hotel
Private operators have moved into the gap with facilities colloquially called itai hotels — literally "corpse hotels" — where a body is refrigerated until a cremation slot opens. Families can visit in a home-like setting, and rates run from 10,000 to 200,000 yen a day depending on size and quality.
The awkward part for planners is that the shortage is expected to be temporary. Japan's population is shrinking, so the case for large-scale infrastructure spending is hard to make. Publicly built crematoriums can be shut down more easily once they are no longer needed, and corpse hotels are ordinary commercial buildings that can be converted to other uses.