Japan’s aging population creates need for corpse hotels in residential areas.
An increasing elderly population and a real estate shortage have overwhelmed Japan’s crematoriums and there is scarce land for building new crematoriums. The country’s solution is to allow what are being called corpse hotels as reported by AOL in “Japan’s corpse hotels upset some of the neighbors.”
Corpse hotels are structures where bodies are kept until they can be transferred to a crematorium. In some cases, family members of the deceased can even visit the body in the hotel. Some corpse hotels are converted buildings in residential neighborhoods, which does not make the living residents very happy.
The U.S. does not have this exact same problem but does also have an increasing elderly population that may cause other problems.
In particular the U.S. will have to decide how to deal with a diminishing Social Security Trust Fund, long term care, and nursing home shortages in the near future. These are all potentially serious problems and if they are not addressed before the systems are overwhelmed, then the country will have a crisis on its hands, just not a corpse hotel crisis it is to be hoped.
Reference: AOL (April 29, 2016) “Japan’s corpse hotels upset some of the neighbors.”
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