Mediating anticipated deaths: new forms of mediator deathwork in the case of “lonely death” in Japan

Speaker: Mika Toyota

“Lonely death”—that is, dying alone without the presence or knowledge of others—is becoming more common worldwide due to demographic and social changes. This development has given rise to new specialized businesses and cultural phenomena in Japan, most notably insurance against the costs associated with a lonely death, specialist post-mortem cleaning businesses, and various cultural products, such as books and TV shows on the cleaners. These new services not only fulfil practical functions, but also serve as new forms of mediator deathwork in the sense that they create discourses and images that shape the public perception of death. Unlike the conventional “mediator deathwork” (Walter 2005), which mediates between the dead and the living, the new forms of deathwork essentially mediate between the living and their future anticipated death. Furthermore, the new forms of deathwork are not spatially bounded and therefore more flexible in the ways they are performed, and also more far-reaching in the impacts they have on public understandings of life and sociality.

Mika Toyota works as research scientist at the Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin. Before joining the Institute in 2020, she was a Professor at Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan (2012–2020) and worked at National University of Singapore (2002–2012) and University of Hull, UK (2000–2002). Mika has published widely on issues related to aging and care in transnational contexts. Her current research explores the emerging service industry around aging, care, death and dying in Japan and elsewhere.