[/floatr]Yomiuri: Gravestone dumping shocks Hyogo island residents
The illegal dumping of several thousand gravestones in a mountainous area of Awajishima island, Hyogo Prefecture, has prompted the prefectural government to promise a full investigation into the matter, it has been learned. The stones are thought to have marked the graves of deceased with no living relatives and were removed to make way for new graves. The dumping raises questions about appropriate methods of gravestone disposal. Of several dumping sites, the area is located along a road leading to a tourist facility on the island. According to local residents, the illegal dumping of gravestones--carried in by trucks and tipped into a pile on the ground without approval--started several years ago. The pile is now five to six meters high. Names still can be read on the gravestones, and some residents fear that abandoning them in the mountains is disrespectful to the dead...With the increasing dissolution of the nuclear family and depopulation in rural areas, there has been an increase in untended gravestones. They reportedly are an easy target for removal, especially in urban areas where the need for new graves is high...more...
