BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.8//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news419@ethnologie.philhist.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20250826T140142 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251015T161500 SUMMARY:The Crisis of Necro-Sociality in Japan: Caring for the Dead Otherwi se DESCRIPTION:In the face of a high aging population\, decline in the rates o f marriage and childbirth\, and a post-growth economy\, sociality is downs izing away from the family to more single lifestyles in Japan. Affecting b oth the making of life and care given the dead\, official response has tar geted the former: trying to correct the crisis of social reproduction with measures to stimulate the birthrate (that have universally failed). But t he drying up of a necro-apparatus once dependent on patrilineal kin has le ft stark holes as well: family gravesites getting abandoned\, and more and more lonely dead without graves to enter at all. As Japanese increasingly age “without anyone else to depend upon (miyori ga nai)\,” new commer cial and public initiatives are arising to tend to the country’s “fami ly-less dead.” The talk examines what is a surge in “ending activity ” (shūkatsu) since the early 2000s of seeking alternatives to the famil y grave and patrilineal kin to be caregivers of the dead. Making one’s p reparations ahead of time or for the relocation of ancestral graves\, necr o-planning brings death into the present and anticipates\, by aiming to av oid\, socially disjunctive ends. What implications does this have for the “crisis” of sociality in Japan today\, and what does it portend for a post-familial future as mapped by new ways of caring for the dead?  \\r\\ nBio\\r\\nAnne Allison is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke Unive rsity. Her research\, on contemporary issues in Japan\, spans the nightlif e\, popular culture\, Pokémon\, sexuality\, gender\, precarity\, and deat h. She is the author of Nightwork: Sexuality\, Pleasure\, and Corporate Ma sculinity in a Tokyo Hostess Club\, Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys and the Global Imagination and Precarious Japan. Her most recent book\, Being Dead Otherwise\, is the recipient of the John Whitney Hall Book Prize for 2025. X-ALT-DESC:

In the face of a high aging population\, decline in the rates of marriage and childbirth\, and a post-growth economy\, sociality is dow nsizing away from the family to more single lifestyles in Japan. Affecting both the making of life and care given the dead\, official response has t argeted the former: trying to correct the crisis of social reproduction wi th measures to stimulate the birthrate (that have universally failed). But the drying up of a necro-apparatus once dependent on patrilineal kin has left stark holes as well: family gravesites getting abandoned\, and more a nd more lonely dead without graves to enter at all. As Japanese increasing ly age “without anyone else to depend upon (miyori ga nai)\,” new commercial and public initiatives are arising to tend to the country ’s “family-less dead.” The talk examines what is a surge in “endin g activity” (shūkatsu) since the early 2000s of seeki ng alternatives to the family grave and patrilineal kin to be caregivers o f the dead. Making one’s preparations ahead of time or for the relocatio n of ancestral graves\, necro-planning brings death into the present and a nticipates\, by aiming to avoid\, socially disjunctive ends. What implicat ions does this have for the “crisis” of sociality in Japan today\, and what does it portend for a post-familial future as mapped by new ways of caring for the dead?
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Bio

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An ne Allison is Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. Her r esearch\, on contemporary issues in Japan\, spans the nightlife\, popular culture\, Pokémon\, sexuality\, gender\, precarity\, and death. She is th e author of Nightwork: Sexuality\, Pleasure\, and Corporate Masculinit y in a Tokyo Hostess Club\, Millennial Monsters: Japanese Toys an d the Global Imagination and Precarious Japan. Her most rece nt book\, Being Dead Otherwise\, is the recipient of the John Whi tney Hall Book Prize for 2025.

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