Attitudes toward death in rural areas of Japan.
Attitudes toward death in rural areas of Japan were investigated by means of a questionnaire. One hundred and sixty out of the 319 families residing on a small island were randomly chosen and 94 percent of them (average age 48 years, male 57 percent; living with parents 41 percent) responded. The respondents did not clearly distinguish the dead from the living in their life-styles. They seemed to recognize a continuity between living and death. They reported having confronted death as members of a family or small local community rather than individually. Community or family is seen as playing a more important role in determining respondents' attitudes toward death than their personal feelings.
D001293:Attitude to Death; D002016:Buddhism; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003469:Culture; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D012424:Rural Population; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires