It seems like every young urban Chinese has a camera phone, and is taking pictures everywhere. Where will this lead? Well, Japan is normally one step ahead of China, and there the latest trend is to take a final picture of the deceased at a funeral. The Sydney Morning Herald reported this morning:

Japan’s obsession with camera-equipped mobile phones has taken a bizarre twist, with mourners at funerals now using the devices to capture a final picture of the deceased.

(…) At one ceremony several people gathered round the coffin and took out their phones to photograph the corpse as preparations were made to begin a cremation, she was quoted as saying.

(..) “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,” social commentator Toru Takeda told the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper.