Hotel for the Dead in Japan

Just like in America, Japan saw a huge boom in children after World War II. Because of this, the funeral industry is one of the largest business networks in Japan. Because many feel that a funeral home is too rushed of a situation for their loved ones, a Buddhist monk created a hotel for the dead where families can check in their dearly departed for $88 a night. There is no limit as to how long a member can stay in the hotel for the dead while funerary arrangements are made. The hotel’s name is the Liss Center and is one of the largest mortuaries for the aging population of Japan. The hotel holds more than 2,000 guests.

The Buddhist proprietor that created the Liss Center says that he got the idea fifteen years ago when the age of the baby boomers started to rise and their health began to decrease. Funeral homes added too much pressure to families, forcing them to make snap decisions that, overall, the families were not happy with. Calling this area a new-age business hotel, residents can only check in if they are not living. To date, the longest anyone has stayed at the Liss Center while arrangements were being made is twenty-eight days. The overall cost of the funeral and the bill for the Liss Center made it one of the most expensive funerals in the history of non-royal Japan.

Funerals in Japan are a very religious and ceremonial occasion, and having little time to plan them the way that the family requests is preposterous for many families to think about. With the Liss Center Hotel, families can give their beloved deceased members a place they can rest while their final resting area is being prepared. While Japan sees the need for a hotel/ mortuary such as this, many other countries are outraged that something like this even exists for the purpose of keeping the dead preserved longer. Others say that they can see the potential of it for officials such as police.