Japan is a country facing unprecedented demographic changes due to its rapidly increasing elderly population. However, a new book, titled Living and Ending Notebook, has hit the market in the country which offers guidance to the elderly about the steps they need to take to prepare for their death. Suggestions in the book range from recording PIN numbers to one’s preferred headstone engraving but tend to trend towards the practical and necessary. The book has sold over half a million copies and will likely move many more due to the incredible need for many elderly Japanese to prepare, in at least minimal way, their estates. Based on the popularity of many other Japanese cultural imports, one cannot help but wonder when a version of this approachable little guide finds its way to the United States.
See Leo Lewis, The riff: Japanese personal organiser for dying, Financial Times, November 11, 2015.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
