Japan’s cut-price morgues cash in on legal loopholes as lonely deaths rise

Unregulated companies are running a brisk trade across Japan storing and disposing unclaimed corpses, with a recent report revealing how such “cut-price morgues” are cashing in on legal loopholes to discard the nation’s dead.

The business has shed light on the growing number of “lonely deaths” of elderly Japanese as the traditional nuclear family fades.

Some industry insiders have expressed shock at the trend and are calling for regulation to block potential loopholes, while others point to public apathy as an enabling factor.

The Asahi newspaper reported last week that nondescript industrial buildings in suburban districts were being used to store human remains in refrigerator units. Reporters visited a “makeshift morgue” operated by a private funeral company, which they called “the front line of a shadowy, unregulated industry now flourishing across Japan”.