Funeral Costs in Japan: What Families Pay, Government Grants and the 24-Hour Rule

Japan has no official funeral price, so what a family pays depends on the type of ceremony, the funeral company, the crematorium and any offering to a Buddhist priest. Almost everyone is cremated, the law requires a 24-hour wait first, and the main state help is small: employee health insurance pays a 50,000 yen burial allowance. The most reliable way to know the cost is to ask for a written, itemized estimate before you agree to anything.

How is a funeral bill made up?

Most Japanese funeral bills combine four things, and it helps to ask about each one separately.

The best-known figures come from a 2008 study by the Japan Consumers Association, which put the average funeral at about 2.31 million yen. Of that, catering was about 401,000 yen and priest services about 549,000 yen. That survey is nearly two decades old, and the association has run newer ones, so use these numbers only to see how the bill splits. The grave or ossuary (where the ashes are kept) is usually a separate purchase.

What types of funeral are there?

The Japanese terms below are the ones you will see on funeral company websites.

• General funeral (ippan-so): A wake (tsuya) the evening after death, a funeral ceremony (kokubetsu-shiki) the next day, then cremation and bone-picking (kotsuage), when family members pick the bones from the ashes with chopsticks.
• Family funeral (kazoku-so): The same basic ceremony, but limited to close family and friends. It is usually cheaper because there are fewer guests to feed and thank.
• One-day funeral (ichinichi-so): The wake is skipped, and the funeral and cremation happen in a single day.
• Direct cremation (chokuso): The body goes from the hospital or home to the crematorium with no wake or funeral. Even then, the 24-hour rule applies, and your temple may still expect something before the ashes are interred.

Buddhist memorial services follow at set intervals, with the main ones at 7 and 49 days. Our guides to Japanese funeral traditions, Buddhist funeral traditions and the 49 days after a death explain the customs. Some families follow Shinto practice instead, covered in our Shinto funeral guide.

What does the law require?

Three rules shape the timeline.

1. Death certificate. A doctor completes the death certificate (shibo shindansho), which is paired with the death notification form.
2. Death notification within 7 days. Under Article 86 of the Koseki Law, the death is reported to the municipal office within 7 days of learning of it (3 months if the death occurred abroad). The funeral company often files it for the family. The municipality then issues the cremation permit (kaso kyoka-sho).
3. A 24-hour wait. Article 3 of the Act on Cemeteries and Burial bars burial and cremation until 24 hours after death. Narrow exceptions exist for stillbirths before the seventh month and, under other laws, for certain infectious diseases.

Burial and the interment of ashes are only allowed in approved cemeteries (Article 4). Around 99.97% of deaths ended in cremation in 2019, so burial of a body is rare. After cremation, the permit is normally returned to the family and is needed when the ashes are interred.

What financial help is available?

Government help covers only a small part of a typical funeral, but it is worth claiming.

• Employee health insurance (Kyokai Kenpo): A burial allowance (maiso-ryo) of 50,000 yen, paid to the person who was financially supported by the insured employee. If nobody qualifies, the person who actually paid for the funeral can claim burial expenses (maiso-hi) of up to 50,000 yen. Claims generally must be made within two years, and employer health plans may add their own benefits, so check with the plan.
• National Health Insurance and the late-stage elderly plan: These pay a funeral grant (sosai-hi), but each municipality or regional association sets the amount by local ordinance. Ask at the municipal office for the figure and the application deadline.
• Public assistance funeral aid (sosai fujo): Under the Public Assistance Act, people who cannot afford a funeral can receive help covering a basic one. Ask the municipal welfare office about this before arranging the funeral, because the aid covers only the necessary minimum.

For families on a tight budget, our guide to what to do if you cannot afford a funeral covers the general options and questions to ask.

How do temples, Buddhist names and offerings work?

A Buddhist funeral usually involves a priest chanting sutras at the wake and funeral and giving the person a posthumous Buddhist name (kaimyo). The family thanks the priest with an offering (o-fuse). There is no fixed price. Elaborate Buddhist names have been reported to cost 1 million yen or more, but a simple one is much less, and amounts differ by temple and region.

Some families belong to a temple's danka system, a long-standing relationship in which the household supports the temple and the temple performs its funerals and memorial services. It is voluntary today, but expectations can be strong, so talk to the temple before you book a funeral company or a priest from elsewhere. Families who want to leave the system should ask the temple how it handles that, as practices vary.

What if you are attending, or live abroad?

Guests give condolence money (koden) in a special envelope, traditionally black and white or silver. The right amount depends on your relationship to the family, so ask a Japanese colleague or friend if you are unsure.

If the person who died was a foreign resident, contact your embassy for guidance, and get repatriation quotes early. Our guides on embassy help after a death, repatriation costs and what to do when someone dies abroad cover the general process. If you are weighing cremation against burial in the home country, see cremation vs burial abroad.

What to do next

1. Ask the hospital or funeral company for the doctor's death certificate and confirm who will file the death notification within 7 days.
2. Ask the temple, if there is one, what is expected, before choosing a ceremony type.
3. Get a written itemized estimate from at least two funeral companies and ask what is not included.
4. Apply for the burial allowance or funeral grant with the correct insurer or municipal office, and keep the funeral invoice.