TECHNOLOGY FOR THIS LIFE AND AFTER-LIFE

In Japan, people have started making preparations for their life after death. And it's not about a piece of land but company. Instead of a regular cemetery, people are opting for graveyard set on a glowing blue glass Buddha statue inside "Ruriden" —a small, futuristic charnel house belonging to Koukoko-ji temple in downtown Tokyo. Over the last few decades, advances in technology, as well as the changing lifestyles of the Japanese, have made high-tech graveyards a cost effective alternative.

Taijun Yajima, the head Buddhist priest at Koukokuji temple to which Ruriden belongs, constructed the glitzy burial ground in 2006. The central idea of building Ruriden was to provide a resting place where people will not feel alone without children or large families in the afterlife. Ruriden is a first of its kind in Japan, according to Yajima, but its format has since caught on and other Buddhist temples across the country are following suit. Yajima said his idea was borne of the necessity to adapt to changing social norms.

“All these glass Buddha statues are like your compatriots, and you’ll be there with them once you die. If you can think that you’re going to be with your friends once you’re dead, you won’t be sad,” said Yajima.

The Buddha statues serve everyone from a nine-month-old baby to a 99-year-old woman. A one-person-sized box costs around 750,000 yen ($6,600). In case, you store the remains of two in there, the cost goes up to 950,000 yen ($8,300). A yearly maintenance fee of 9,000 yen ($80) is required and your remains are guaranteed a place inside Ruriden for 33 years. After that, person’s remains will be moved from the locker and placed in a communal resting place underneath the edifice. Buddhist sculptures and locker spaces are not re-used once emptied; instead, they are kept vacant.

Traditionally the cremated remains were stored in burial urns and placed inside the family grave. Then grave is passed down the generations and the upkeep of these tombstones and yearly maintenance fee are shouldered by living relatives, who will try and pay their respects as often as they can.

In Japan, declining birth rates, increasing space crunch in cities, and skyrocketing prices for cemetery plots have brought on a radical rethink in how the deceased are both buried and commemorated by those they leave behind.