New types of burials and ways of mourning have emerged in recent years, ranging from columbariums using digital technology to graves for couples or those where owners and pets can be buried together.

The COVID-19 pandemic made such services as grave visiting in place of families or ones using virtual reality technology take root.

In August 2022, Kenjoin, a Tendai sect Buddhist temple in Sendai’s Aoba Ward, opened a columbarium that can accommodate the remains of 600 people in a modern reinforced concrete building with three digitized altars.