Attitudes toward death in rural areas of Japan

Attitudes toward death in rural areas of Japan were investigated by means of a questionnaire. One hundred and sixty out of the 319 families residing on a small island were randomly chosen and 94 percent of them (average age 48 years, male 57 percent; living with parents 41 percent) responded. The respondents did not clearly distinguish the dead from the living in their life-styles. They seemed to recognize a continuity between living and death. They reported having confronted death as members of a family or small local community rather than individually. Community or family is seen as playing a more important role in determining respondents' attitudes toward death than their personal feelings.