Shūkatsu

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Shūkatsu ( Japanese 終 活 , dt. About "end-of-life activity") is a practice in Japan that is aimed at one's own demise . The focus is on the organization of one's own grave and one's own burial, but the term now also means more generally a precaution with regard to care , life-prolonging measures, cleaning up one's own house, arranging the estate and other activities that have to be done before dying are.

The term coined in 2009 in a series of articles in the weekly edition of the Asahi Shinbun (Shūkan Asahi) inspired numerous other publications and media articles as well as new job descriptions, meeting places and events, and since then has enabled a new way of speaking about the taboo topic of death .

etymology

The term shūkatsu is made up of the characters shū終 (in the kun'yomi also as owari ), German about “end” or in this case “end of life”, and katsu活, which is an abbreviation for katsudō活動, dt. "Activity, activity" stands. This results in a translation as “activities directed towards the end of life or activity of the end of life”. In order to differentiate the term from the homophone shūkatsu就 活 for the process of job search, the term owari no katsudō終 わ り の „," activity of the end of life ", is also used. As a term, shūkatsu joins a trend of new words with the ending - katsu , which have been describing more and more new, targeted activities since the 1990s: for example, the activity of looking for a job shūkatsu就 活, the search for a spouse konkatsu婚 活 or the effort about getting pregnant ninkatsu妊 活. Since these kanji compounds are actually abbreviations for terms with four kanji (e.g. konkatsu for kekkon katsudō結婚 活動), shūkatsu is sometimes used as shūen katsudō終 活動, but this has not caught on .

history

In autumn 2009, a series of articles appeared in the weekly edition of Asahi Shinbun (Shūkan Asahi), which coined and defined the term for the first time. The series of articles dealt with current developments on the funeral market and wanted to encourage consumers to inform themselves in advance and to compare prices. The articles appeared in 2010 bundled as a magazine or in the format of the magazine book , in short: MOOK. Other publications by other publishers followed. Since 2013 the publishing house of Sankei Shinbun has published its own quarterly magazine called Shūkatsu Dokuhon Sonae (Shūkatsu Reader Sonae, where Sonae can be read in the double meaning of “preparation” or “devotion to the dead”). Another magazine is Shūkatsu Café. Reports are also regularly shown on television. On Saturdays TV Hokkaidō even runs a format called Shūkatsu TV. The retail chain AEON offers Shūkatsu trade fairs in its department stores, as does the Shūkatsu Counselor Association 終 活 カ ウ ン セ ラ ー 協会 with their so-called Shūkatsu Fesuta. Events at which people can even try stepping into a coffin to deal with their own death in this way also experience great media coverage. The public interest in shūkatsu increased not least because of the national and international success of the film Nokan - The Art of Fading Out from 2008.

Likewise, celebrity autobiographies and Shūkatsu manifestos contribute to greater awareness of shūkatsu . For example, the television and radio commentator Kaneko Tetsuo, who died at the age of 41 of a rare disease, left his memoirs entitled "My way of dying - 500 days ending diary" (『僕 の 死 に 方 エ ン デ ィ ン グ ダ イ ア リ ー - 500 日 の』, published by Shōgak ).

Social background

The phenomenon is understood by the funeral industry itself as well as by the national and international press against the background of demographic change in Japan . Increasingly higher life expectancy is contrasted with a low birth rate, which is referred to either as demographic change or as the aging of the population . As the baby boomers age after the war (those born between 1947 and 1949, similar to the baby boomers in Germany ), the mortality rate rises continuously up to the year 2040, which is known as peak death . This leads to a lack of space, especially in the densely populated metropolises, which leads to new burial rituals, such as fully automated conveyor belt columbaria.

Another reason for turning to one's own dying is the complicated family grave system, which goes hand in hand with continuous, cross-generational ancestor worship. This was legally established in the Meiji Constitution and says that i. d. R. the eldest son of an ancestral family ( honke本家) inherits the responsibility for the family grave and is responsible for its care, including the ancestor worship rituals. Next-born sons had to found their own family grave with their spouse and pass it on to the children. The transmission in families with only female descendants turned out to be difficult and was handled differently. After the Second World War, the ie system ( ie-seido家 家) on which it was based was abolished, but it was still used according to customary law. This is now changing because, on the one hand, more and more people remain unmarried ( shōgai mikon生涯 未婚) and / or childless for life and, on the other hand, despite the presence of offspring, the parents' generation no longer wants to burden them with the responsibility for the care of the family grave, which has to be passed on from generation to generation . Many graves are also "orphaned" ( mu'enbaka無 縁 墓) due to the departure of the responsible descendants . This made it necessary to think about the whereabouts of the family grave. New trends such as reburial ( Kaiso改葬), resolution ( o-haka-Jimaiお墓じまい), or even the complete rejection of a tomb ( zero-sōゼロ葬) have emerged.

criticism

Critics have exposed the shūkatsu practice that it is only about financial and organizational matters such as the organization of the grave and the burial, but not about a spiritual confrontation with one's own death (死 生 観). Ultimately, it just boils down to a "business". The shūkatsu industry responded by expanding the term to include other activities.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nakagawa Jun'ichirō 中 川 淳一 (2012): Zōka suru “maru-katsu”, haikei ni nani ga - “katsu” ichiji ni arata na imi 増 殖 す る 「○ 活」 、 背景 に 何 が 「活」 た に に 新 新 新 新 新 新 新 に にな 意味 [-katsu - what's behind that? New meanings behind the character "katsu"]. In: Nikkei Style Online, December 18, 2012, https://style.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASDB11001_R11C12A2000000 . (Japanese)
  2. ↑ Shūkan Asahi Mook (2010): Watashi no sōshiki jibun no ohaka. Shūkatsu manyuaru 2010: Yori yoku ima o ikiru tame ni jinsei no saigo o kangaeru. Tōkyō: Asahi Shinbun. (Japanese)
  3. ↑ http://www.sankei-books.co.jp/sp/sonae/index.html (Japanese)
  4. ↑ http://www.shucafe.jp/ (Japanese)
  5. ↑ http://www.officeseven.com/tv5.html (Japanese)
  6. ↑ https://www.aeonlife-shukatsu.jp/seminar/schedule/ (Japanese)
  7. ↑ https://www.shukatsu-fesuta.com/ (Japanese)
  8. ↑ Kiran Modley: Japanese prepare for the afterlife by testing out coffins. In: The Independent Online. November 26, 2014, accessed January 11, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Monami Yui: Try a coffin for size: The death business is thriving in Japan. In: The Sydney Morning Herald Online. December 17, 2015, accessed January 11, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Peak death. Japan and the last commute. In: The Economist Online. August 6, 2016, accessed January 11, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Sonja Blaschke: Japan's death rituals: rest in peace, rest on the high shelf. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung Online. January 9, 2018, accessed January 11, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Kawano, Satsuki (2010): Nature's embrace. Japan's aging urbanites and new death rites. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, p. 11.
  13. ↑ Kotani Midori 小 谷 み ど り (2015): Dare ga haka wo mamoru ka. Tashi, jinkōgenshō shakai no naka de 誰 が 墓 を 守 る か - 多 死 ・ 人口 減少 社会 の な か で [Who takes care of the grave? In a society with high mortality and declining populations]. Tōkyō: Iwanami Booklet.
  14. ^ Anna Fifield: In rapidly aging Japan, dying is big business. In: Washington Post Online. December 19, 2015, accessed January 11, 2019 .