Japanese Pay High Price to Rest in Peace

If you want better treatment, you have to pay for it. But even in the afterlife?

Japan’s Buddhist establishment is increasingly under attack over the practice of charging bereaved and vulnerable relatives huge fees for afterlife names given to the dead at their funerals.

The tradition is ancient. It began with names conferred only on Buddhist priests. When temples began according afterlife names to laypeople, the names became something akin to a ranking system reflecting the deceased’s noble actions during life.

Now, however, the decision is based almost exclusively on money. And lots of it.

The highest rank, called ingo, usually costs more than $8,300. Of the average $5,300 paid to temples for funeral fees in the Tokyo area, about $3,300 goes for the posthumous name.

The high price of the names is included in the average $20,000 cost of a funeral, according to the Japan Consumers Assn.

The names are written on funeral markers and are believed by the devout to help the dead find a better niche in the afterlife. Going cheap on a name, therefore, can carry a heavy stigma.

“Buddhist organizations say families demand expensive names, but the responsibility for the high prices lies with the temples,” said Kunimitsu Kawamura, a professor of religion at Osaka University.

Traditionally, Buddhist temples were supported by contributions from parishioners. But the strong trend toward urbanization since the end of World War II has eroded the links between temples and their communities, making temples highly reliant on the funeral fees.

Criticism over the cost of afterlife names is so intense that the Japan Buddhist Federation has organized a series of meetings to devise ways to explain the practice to the public.

“There’s been a lot of criticism of the practice among ordinary people,” said Yuko Nousu, a spokesman for the federation. “We aren’t thinking of abolishing the system, but we are trying to find a way to make the concept more understandable.”

Aside from cost, complaints are rising that although the names are meant to reflect the deceased’s personality, monks don’t bother to consult with the bereaved family about selecting a posthumous name, or even give an explanation once one is chosen.

“The actual process of choosing a name is very simple,” Kawamura said. “Each temple has its own manual.”

The controversy over the names has fueled criticism that many of Japan’s Buddhist temples are run like corporations with the simple aim of amassing as much money as possible.

Many temples have gone into lucrative businesses such as running apartment buildings, parking lots and golf courses. Some have introduced high-tech attractions like karaoke machines and Internet services to attract new members.

Because most temples are handed down from generation to generation, many people enter the Buddhist priesthood in Japan not out of any sense of vocation but through family obligation or hopes of material gain.

“They are often given incentives like cars and electronic goods to carry on the temple,” said Nobutaka Inoue, a religion professor at Japan’s Kokugakuin University.

Japanese society is highly ambivalent when it comes to religion.

While rites to appease the spirits of dead relatives are everyday affairs in many households, most Japanese don’t adhere strictly to any religion in particular.

Families often hold weddings in shrines associated with the indigenous religion of Shinto, and funerals at Buddhist temples. In fact, critics have complained that officiating at funerals is the only significant role Buddhist priests play.

There has long been a secular streak among Japan’s Buddhist clergy itself. Japanese monks are not sworn to celibacy, and they were even recruited as foot soldiers during World War II.

“Most Buddhist monks don’t really concern themselves with religious matters,” said Kawamura. “The trend is for people to turn away from expensive Buddhist funerals, so monks may soon find themselves with very little to do.”