Smi ... er, Never Mind

The Japanese used to venerate their dead. Now they take pictures of them before the coffin lid is slammed shut. A lot of folks in this technology-obsessed country have taken to using their camera-equipped cell phones to snap a final photo of the dearly departed. "I get the sense that people no longer respect the dead. It's disturbing," one funeral director told a Japanese newspaper. She went on to recount a funeral where several people gathered round the coffin and took out their phones to photograph the corpse as preparations were made to begin a cremation. "I'm sure the deceased would never want their faces photographed," she said. But Toru Takeda, a social commentator, said that in the new age, "some can't grasp 'reality' unless they take a photo and share it with others.... It comes from a desire to keep a strong bond with the deceased."