Friends on the grave: the Japanese are more afraid of loneliness after death than before (5 photos)

The Japanese population is aging, it is a well-known fact. And there is also a widespread epidemic of loneliness and even a minister for loneliness. And in connection with this, a new social phenomenon has appeared - friends on the grave.





Good girls, cherished friends, Friendly faces, lights of cheerful eyes!

These are elderly people who do not want to lie next to strangers and are looking for people to make friends with, so that later they will bury you next to them.

Where did the trend for posthumous friends come from?

Many lonely elderly people or adults who are lonely now do not have and will not have a family.

New statistics show that 34% of the population are lonely. Almost half of them are elderly.



On the first day of spring, the younger generation brings flowers, gifts and washes the graves of the elder

And according to Japanese beliefs, you will be surrounded by relatives in the afterlife.

Imagine how scary it is when you don’t have any.

This is how dating sites "by grave" appeared, and then companies that will find you friends by grave. Because it is stupid to offer dating on sites to people who have not managed to make close friends and spouses in their entire lives.

Tokyo non-profit (!) organization Ending Center organizes the burial of the ashes of elderly people. But at the same time it holds events for a very narrow circle of its clients.





Old, unwanted graves of someone, where flowers were placed out of compassion

Future clients. If you promise to become one, you can get to book clubs and tea parties for those who are from 60 to 80 years old. These book clubs call themselves "grave friends." They have agreed to keep each other company not only in life, but also so that they can be buried next to each other.

Burial "nowhere"

By the way, the Japanese have gracefully solved the problem of abandoned graves. Because it is customary to take care of the graves of your relatives, and abandoned graves without care look pitiful and abandoned.



See? I don't see either, and here are the graves of several people

And for 20 years now, Japan has had a service of burial under a tree. Then your remains will feed the tree, and it will grow and blossom on its own without outside help. And no relatives are needed to take care of it.

I didn't grow up in the religious tradition of Japan, I can't understand the inner horror that makes the Japanese be lonely here, but suddenly afraid of loneliness in the afterlife. How unimportant is their current existence in our world, so - a trial, or something?



Why not make friends and get married NOT BEFORE DEATH