Altered image does not show cardboard coffin at crematorium in Japan

Published on August 23, 2024 at 05:23
3 min read
By Hailey JO, AFP South Korea

An altered image circulated in social media alongside a false claim that it depicts Japan's use of cardboard coffins. The original picture -- taken in the United States -- was flipped and Japanese characters were added on the casket. The post circulated in neighbouring South Korea where users questioned whether it was a respectful way to cremate the dead.

"Japan's working class uses cardboard coffins that are immediately cremated at high temperatures instead of expensive wooden coffins," reads the Korean-language overlaid text in an image shared on Facebook on August 20.

The post features a picture of a man pushing a cardboard casket into a crematorium chamber, with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's name written on it in Japanese.

Screenshot of the Facebook post, taken on August 21, 2024

The same image has spread elsewhere on Facebook, TikTok and South Korean online forums Ruliweb and Jongto.

Some South Korean news outlets have also published the image alongside similar claims like here, here and here.

Some users appeared to believe the claim.

"That is used when major disasters like earthquakes break out. In Japan, in particular, cardboard is popular and is used for dividers, playgrounds, beds and so on, so there is less opposition. It may be practical but it doesn't seem like a respectful way to treat the deceased," wrote one user.

"This is enough to be recognised as the nation of cardboard," another said.

But the image has been doctored and was not taken in Japan.

California crematorium

A reverse image search on Google found the image was taken from a YouTube video posted on December 27, 2023 (archived link).

The footage was uploaded to a YouTube account that belonged to a user named Augie Inciong.

Inciong told AFP the video was filmed in Glendale, California.

"This picture came from my video. It was flipped horizontally and characters were added to the box. This was not filmed in Japan. It was filmed in California, USA," he said on August 20.

"It was my father's cremation," he added.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the doctored image (left) and the corresponding shot from the YouTube video (right):

Screenshot comparison between the doctored image (L) and the corresponding shot from the YouTube video (R)

The coffin also contained the text "CONTAINER MEETS CALIFORNIA AB 598 REQUIREMENTS SECTION 7006.5" on its left flap.

Screenshot from the original YouTube video, cropped by AFP

This requirement pertains to a regulation in California that governs funeral services and crematories (archived link).

Section 7006.5 of California Bill 598 defines a "cremation container" as "a combustible, closed container resistant to leakage of bodily fluids into which the body of a deceased person is placed prior to insertion in a cremation chamber for cremation".

No Japanese text can be seen on the coffin.

Japan's cardboard coffins

While cardboard coffins are used in Japan as a sustainable alternative to traditional wooden caskets, some have fabric covers which make it difficult to identify the cardboard underneath.

Ecoffins were imported to Japan from the United States in the 1990s, according to a 2007 article in Asahi Shimbun, a major newspaper in Japan (archived link).

According to a 2007 article on the Morioka Keizai Shimbun website, cardboard caskets use roughly two-thirds of the wood pulp required for conventional hardwood coffins, require half the energy for cremation and produce less carbon dioxide (archived link).

Japan has seen a gradual increase in demand for cardboard coffins, but not everyone is enthusiastic about this trend, according to a 2008 Time article (archived link).

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