Japan's Dying Industry.(the funeral business)

Seated in a Tokyo conference room, Sawako Takahashi leafs through glossy brochures advertising handmade urns and Western-style coffins. For three hours she and her silver-haired friends contemplate their own deaths, helped by an entrepreneurial nursing-home manager who moonlights as a funeral planner. They draft guest lists, sample appropriate music and learn how to estimate the cost of their own departures. Takahashi finds the presentation less impressive than the funeral-planning show she attended last month. "They had special appetizers and sake for us to taste," she says. "And tables set up for us to practice writing our own death announcements."

While many Japanese businesses are edging closer to extinction, the country's death industry is alive and kicking. Buoyed by an ever- graying demographic--by 2007, one in five Japanese will be 65 or older- -those in the death trade are gearing up for a spike in demand for their services. But the yen doesn't stretch as far as it once did, and fewer families are willing to pay the standard $40,000 for a funeral. "It used to be that no one questioned price, but all of that is changing," says a spokeswoman for the Japan Funeral Association. "Suddenly the death industry has become extremely competitive."

Death in Japan is as complicated as it is time-consuming. Traditionally, the body is brought back to the home, where mourners serenade the departed with Buddhist chants. The family must purchase an altar and prepare a framed photo of the deceased, which is displayed throughout the mourning period. Black and white banners, lanterns and flowers must be ordered and hung outside the house. Priests and mourners must be hired, and a spot at the nearest crematory reserved (cremation is mandatory in Japan because of the shortage of land). Families show their appreciation to guests by handing out funeral mementos, such as towel sets or prepaid phone cards, which must be imprinted with a note of thanks. "At the end, the family receives a gigantic bill from the temple or funeral coordinator," says Midori Kotani, researcher at the Yokohama-based Life Design Institute, an industry think tank.

It's little wonder that Japan's funerals rank among the world's most expensive. (A typical service runs $5,000 in the United States and $3,200 in England.) Few Japanese today can afford to give their loved ones a ...