Korean population crisis The world's lowest birth rate is to blame, but there are also problems at the other end of the life cycle, according to Tuesday's report.
Korea JoongAng Ilbo (KJD) report Families in South Korea say they are having trouble cremating the dead because crematoriums have limited capacity and the number of deaths among the elderly is increasing.
Traditional Korean funerals are usually 3 days However, there is a severe shortage of crematoriums, with only about 64% of the dead able to be cremated on the usual third day, and many funerals extending beyond four days.
The shortage of crematoriums was particularly acute in large cities such as Seoul, where only 33.6% of bodies could be cremated on the third day. K.J.D. After doing some research, we found that some crematoriums in major cities are currently fully booked until Saturday, so those who died today will have to wait until after Sunday.
The backlog is so severe that many families are “booking crematoriums even before a doctor declares death.” The funeral industry is scrambling to extend operating hours and build more furnaces to keep up with demand. After the midnight cremation, the family reluctantly stores the urn in their home or car so they can complete the funeral the next day.
K.J.D. He pointed out that some of the common problems with infrastructure are South Korean cities not being able to build enough crematoriums – limited and expensive real estate, residents not wanting to build crematoriums in their backyards. But the biggest and most intractable problem is that societies in demographic collapse are struggling to cope with demographic collapse. Increasing trend in surplus deaths:
Supply and demand for crematoriums do not match perfectly, given demographic and time factors.
If South Korea becomes a super-aging society (more than 20% of the population is over 65 years old) and the number of deaths rapidly increases, the shortage of crematoriums is likely to become uncontrollable.
The Korea Statistics Bureau has predicted that the annual number of deaths will reach 410,000 by the 2030s, exceeding the current cremation capacity.
The current number of deaths nationwide seems to be well within South Korea's national cremation capacity, but the annual cremation quota is approximately 346,000 compared to the number of 342,000 deaths. In large cities with zoning laws, demand far exceeds supply. If the total number of deaths actually exceeds the nation's nominal carrying capacity, cities will be in very dilapidated condition.
First, there was a shortage of crematoriums. obviously unpleasant In 2020, just before the outbreak of the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, funeral experts warned that China was not building new facilities fast enough to keep up with demand. At that time, the major cities of Incheon and Busan each had only one crematorium. Transporting the deceased to a rural facility that is not well booked is extremely expensive, increasing funeral costs by more than 500 percent.
In addition to calling for more aggressive construction of crematoriums and loosening of zoning laws, funeral industry officials are calling for more construction of crematoriums and loosening of zoning laws, as well as for the sake of more “flexible funeral practices,” as funeral expert Park Tae-ho puts it. All I can do is suggest that the three-day funeral be cancelled.
This may be difficult for Koreans who value tradition to accept. For Koreans, long funerals signify cheerful family gatherings, celebrations of life, and a gentle farewell to those who have passed away. The mass transition to cremation was a compromise with the reality that cemetery burials were simply too expensive.
Channel News Asia (CNA) report Demographic changes are causing young, unmarried and middle-aged Koreans without children to plan simple, practical funerals rather than elaborate three-day family funerals, according to an April study. It was announced on .
In Korean culture, it is called “dying alone” or Kodoxa It is considered a sad fate, almost a terrible fate. Statistically, Korean men are about five times more likely to die alone than women, especially if they die relatively young from illness or suicide, or if they live below the poverty line.
More and more orphaned men are dying alone, leaving their bodies behind. Undiscovered a few days. Prompted by this increase in deaths, South Korea passed a law called the Lonely Death Prevention and Management Act in 2021, a measure deemed necessary by the legislature to “prepare for a super-aging society.” be.
“Over the past five years, the number of lonely deaths has increased at an average annual rate of about 8.8 percent,” CNA observed. Currently, more than 30 percent of South Korea's population is single.
Due to these demographic trends, more and more Koreans are planning their own funerals due to a lack of children to carry out traditional duties. The funeral industry is adjusting its sales pitch to the growing number of lifelong singles, and is warning governments about a future in which demand for cremation will become increasingly pronounced and fewer young people available to build and work on furnaces. We are asking them to formulate a policy.
