Japan's funerals rank among the world's most expensive While many Japanese businesses are edging closer to extinction, the country's death industry is alive and kicking. Buoyed by an ever-graying demographics... the death trade [is] gearing up for a spike in demand for their services. But the yen doesn't stretch as far as it once did, and fewer families are willing to pay the standard $40,000 for a funeral...Tokyo funeral-home director Yutaka Nakashima recalls ...after he provided a breakdown of the charges, one elderly woman asked whether she could receive a discount since she, "had fewer bodily fluids and was much smaller than most adults. "