Noriaki Iwashima gestures as he lies in a coffin to try it out during an end-of-life seminar held by Japan's largest retailer Aeon Co in Tokyo October 24, 2014. Funeral arrangements are normally left to those who have been left behind but the latest trend in Japan, which literally translates to “End of life” preparations, is for the ageing to prepare their own funerals and graves before they set off on their journey to the great beyond. With a population that is expected to shrink by nearly 30 million people over the next 50 years, the market for funerals, graves and anything related to the afterlife is still very much alive. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)

Tomomi Ota pushes a trolley loaded with her humanoid robot Pepper as she crosses a street in Omotesando shopping district in Tokyo, Japan, 24 March 2016. Telecommunications and mobile phone carrier SoftBank Corp. opened a robot-staffed store where 10 Pepper humanoid robots welcome customers looking to buy a mobile phone. The store will be opened until 30 March 2016. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA)

Tourists dressed in yukatas, a light, unlined, summer kimono made of cotton instead of the traditional silk, climb steps to visit a temple on April 27, 2016 in Kyoto, Japan. Now the seventh largest city in Japan, Kyoto was once the Imperial capital for more than one thousand years, it is now the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture and a major part of the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe metropolitan area. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

In this Tuesday, April 16, 2019, file photo, a visitor posing for a photo walks though azalea blossoms at Nezu Shrine during a day of mild spring weather in Tokyo. Nezu Shrine is one of the oldest shrines in Tokyo. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo/File)

An AI Gamer “Q56” robot plays a video game during a demonstration at the Bandai Namco Holdings Inc. booth at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies in Chiba, Japan on October 16, 2019. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg)

A participant in a tiger-themed costume walks during the “bakeneko” or supernatural cat festival as a Halloween parade in the Kagurazaka district of Tokyo on October 13, 2024. (Photo by Philip Fong/AFP Photo)

A woman offers prayers at a temple during the Chinese New Year celebrations in Yokohama Chinatown, near Tokyo, Japan, 29 January 2025. The celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on 29 January 2025, are held in Yokohama Chinatown, Japan's largest Chinatown. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

A Star Wars fan in an R2-D2 costume poses for a photo outside the venue during a fan convention called the Star Wars Celebration in Chiba, near Tokyo, Friday, April 18, 2025. (Photo by Hiro Komae/AP Photo)