Approximately 42,000 bodies went unclaimed in Japan in fiscal 2023 and were subsequently cremated or buried by local authorities, a recent government estimate showed, amid a rise in elderly people who live alone without family support.The first study of its kind, commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, also showed most municipalities did not have an established protocol for dealing with the bodies, including how long they should be kept before cremation.Of the roughly 1,160 municipalities surveyed by the Japan Research Institute, only 11.3 percent said they had a procedur…READ FULL ARTICLE
