DEATH ANXIETY IN JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA

ABSTRACT. This study compared death anxiety ratings as measured by the
Templer Death Anxiety Scale (Templer, 1970) in 121 Japanese and 139
Australian subjects. Japanese subjects had significantly higher death
anxiety scores than their Australian counterparts. Australian women scored
significantly higher than Australian men, but no sex differences were found
in the Japanese sample. A slight but statistically significant positive
correlation was found between age and death anxiety scores. This study
contradicted other research that indicated that Eastern cultural attitudes
mitigated anxiety about death. These findings are discussed in relation to
the complex relationship between culture and death anxiety as well as in
relation to problems inherent in our current conception of death anxiety.

The capacity for death awareness appears to be an unfortunate consequence
of the amplified levels of consciousness that are characteristic of humans.
In this regard, it has been theorized that heightened self-awareness and
death perception are causally related and that they emerged simultaneously
over the course of our evolutionary history (Dobzhansky, Ayala, Stebbins, &
Valentine, 1977; Schumaker, 1990). Becker (1973) viewed the evolutionary
idea of a self-conscious animal to be "ludicrous, if not monstrous" (p.
87), since the reality of death has such serious emotional and
psychological consequences. Similarly, Crook (1980) argued that certain
psychological adaptations (i.e., defenses) were required to avoid the fate
of "ever wriggling on that hook of death awareness" (p. 353). But the
actual methods by which we cope, or do not cope, with our own mortality
have been the source of much debate.

Probably death anxiety is managed at both the individual and cultural
levels. Berger (1967, 1969) referred to the latter of these in stating that
a primary role of any culture is to provide its members with a barrier
against the knowledge and fear of death; this barrier is a composite of
learned meanings and beliefs, many of which are traceable to conventional
religious dogma and related ritual. Florian and Snowden (1989) and McCarthy
(1980) theorized that the interaction of culture and religion are key
components of the process by which the reality of death is avoided or
redirected in productive ways. However, Kubler-Ross (1975) observed that
cultures differ greatly in their ways of explaining and giving meaning to
death. It is, therefore, reasonable to suspect that some cultural systems
may be more effective than others at safeguarding their members from the
psychological impact of death perception (Charmaz, 1980; Schumaker,
Barraclough, & Vagg, 1988). Cross-cultural studies that use objective
measures of death anxiety should reflect such differences.

One of the more consistent findings to emerge from the small body of
empirical research on this subject concerns the matter of Eastern versus
Western orientation. Evidence suggests that people from various Eastern
cultures tend to have less measured death anxiety than their Western
counterparts (McMordie & Kumar, 1984; Schumaker et al., 1988; Westman &
Canter, 1985). Kubler-Ross (1975) provides a theoretical basis for these
findings based on the view that Eastern systems of religious belief more
effectively assuage fear of death. Westman and Canter (1985) accounted for
their findings in the like fashion while referring to the Eastern view of
death as a transitory "incident of on-going existence" (p. 419). This view
was seen to contrast with the more materialistic Western assumption that
death of body equals death of self. Weisz, Rothbaum, and Blackburn (1984)
referred specifically to Zen Buddhism as an example of an Eastern religion
that offers its adherents a sense of peace and interpretative control that
stems from an acceptance of life's realities, including eventual death.

Most of these studies used Chinese, Malaysian, and Indian subjects.
However, very few data have been gathered using Japanese individuals. This
omission is somewhat surprising given Japan's unique historical
orientations to the concept of death, orientations that might be expected
to influence death anxiety levels in that population. These include various
forms of institutional suicide, kamikaze and war exercises, and the
self-immolation practices in which people once engaged after the death of
their leaders (Kato, 1974).

Taken alone, the relics of Japan's past could lead one to conclude that
some aspects of Japan's cultural history mitigated fear of death. One might
also predict lower death anxiety levels on the basis of the social
organization pattern in Japan. As Moeran (1984) stated, in the group model
of Japanese society, people act within the framework of the group while
individual interests are subjugated for the sake of cooperation and
coordination of purpose, action, and attitude. Such a system may afford
members of society the social support and sense of belonging that could
moderate death anxiety.

Also, Japan has the stereotypical image of a society that does not dispose
of the elderly, another factor that might help to control the death
concerns associated with the inevitable process of aging. Indeed, Yamamoto,
Okonogi, Iwasaki, and Yoshimura (1969) found that Japanese widows who
adhered to traditional customs were less depressed and adjusted to
bereavement with less difficulty than those who followed Christian
practices.

In contrast, a different set of factors suggest that higher levels of death
anxiety might exist among members of Japanese society. For example,
cross-national research shows Japanese subjects to have exceptionally high
levels of neuroticism and nonspecific anxiety (see Butcher & Pancheri,
1976). Because neuroticism has been found to correlate with death anxiety
(e.g., Templer, 1970), the neuroticism factor possibly may be reflected in
higher death anxiety scores in Japanese individuals.

Another factor concerning the association between religion and death
anxiety might prompt the prediction of greater fear of death among Japanese
subjects. In a large international Gallup survey, Japan was found to have
the lowest rate of religious belief/practice of all countries surveyed (see
Naroll, 1983). For instance, only 14% of the Japanese respondents regarded
religion as very important in their lives, while only 19% believed in
religion in general. Those percentages were 56% and 64.3%, respectively,
for American subjects, with India topping the list at 86% and 85.3%,
respectively. Australians (the comparison group in the present study) had
scores of 25% and 38.3%, respectively. The Gallup survey also assessed
belief in life after death as one component of religiosity. Only 18% of the
Japanese respondents endorsed such a belief, whereas 43% of their
Australian counterparts did.

Still another issue that would lead to a prediction of higher death anxiety
among the Japanese concerns the differential mechanisms of social and
psychological restraint used in countries such as Japan and Australia. In
developing the thesis that all societies promote certain types of this
restraint or defense, Hsu (1984) distinguished between repression and
suppression as mechanisms of control and claimed that Japan is an example
of a society that fosters suppression as a form of restraint, whereas most
Western societies tend to engender repression. Because defense mechanisms
are typically seen as essential to the regulation of death anxiety (e.g.,
Florian, Kravetz, & Frankel, 1984; Gordon, 1970; Pollak, 1979), people from
suppressive cultures may be less able to relinquish the reality of death
from conscious awareness. This view is based on the standard premise that
repression allows for painful material to be completely eliminated from
conscious awareness, whereas suppression does not necessarily exclude such
material from society's consciousness.

Of course, the problem for measuring death anxiety, given all of these
observations, is that a score on a scale is itself problematic. As noted by
Kastenbaum and Costa (1977) in particular, a high score could mean
genuinely high anxiety or the failure of defenses; a low score could mean
generally low anxiety or the effective operation of defenses.

In this study, the widely used Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS; Templer,
1970) was used to measure death anxiety among Japanese and Australian
subjects. Much empirical cross-cultural research makes use of similar-aged
university students or ethnic groups residing outside their native country.
As a result, the data are often of limited interpretive value (Kastenbaum &
Costa, 1977). In contrast, the subjects here were diverse in age and
background and resided in their countries of origin.

                                   Method

Subjects

The 121 Japanese subjects consisted of 77 men and 44 women ranging in age
from 21 to 65 (M age = 34.6, SD = 9.7). They were all residents of Fukuoka,
a large industrial city on the island of Kyushu. They represented people
from a wide range of occupations and socioeconomic backgrounds.

The 139 Australian subjects were 69 men and 70 women ranging in age from 17
to 69 (M age = 31.88, SD = 11.4). All subjects were recruited from the city
of Melbourne. As with the Japanese subjects, they were a very diverse group
with regard to employment and socioeconomic status.

Procedure

Subjects were administered the Templer Death Anxiety Scale, a 15-item
measurement instrument thought to be especially sensitive to the affective
arousal associated with death awareness (Neimeyer, Dingemans, & Epting,
1977). Examples of test items are I am very much afraid to die and The
subject of life after death troubles me greatly. Subjects must respond in a
true/false manner. DAS scores can range from 0 to 15, with higher scores
thought to be indicative of greater fear of death. The DAS was originally
found to have an internal consistency coefficient of .76 (Kuder-Richardson
Formula 20), and a test-retest reliability score of .83 (Templer, 1970).
For use in Japan, the DAS was translated into Japanese with the generous
assistance of colleagues at Fukuoka University.

In both Japan and Australia, the DAS was administered on an individual
basis. Volunteers were obtained through a network of personal and business
contacts.

                                  Results

Table 1 shows mean scores and standard deviations for men and women,
separate as well as combined, for Japanese and Australian samples.
Comparisons of pertinent mean scores using multiple t tests disclosed the
following statistically significant difference: Japanese men scored
significantly higher than Australian men (t = 4.38, p < .001), the total
Japanese sample scored significantly higher than the total Australian
sample (t = 2.97, p < .001), and Australian women scored significantly
higher than Australian men (t = 3.89, p < .001). There were no
statistically significant differences between Japanese men and women (t =
.21, p > .05) or between Japanese women and Australian women (t = .19, p >
.05). The Pearson product-moment correlation between age and death anxiety
scores was. 14, p < .05, for the total sample, a very modest but
statistically significant correlation.

                                 Discussion

Cross-cultural studies are valuable ways of establishing the parameters of
any particular phenomenon. On one hand, data from studies of death anxiety
illuminate some of the ways that different groups handle the subject of
death. On the other hand, such information tells something about death
anxiety itself. This study extends previous observations of one feature of
death concern--death anxiety.

Japanese subjects were found to have significantly higher death anxiety, as
measured by the Templer Death Anxiety Scale, than Australian subjects. This
is inconsistent with results obtained by Schumaker et al. (1988) with
Malaysian and Australian subjects. Schumaker et al.'s subjects were drawn
from a student population; nonetheless, their proffered explanation that
Eastern attitudes are developed in a context that mitigates anxiety about
death are contradicted here.

This last point has to be reexamined in light of the finding that, although
Japanese men had higher death anxiety scores than Australian men, this
tendency was not true of Japanese women compared with Australian women;
furthermore, the usual observation of women scoring higher on death anxiety
than men (Schumaker et al., 1988; Warren, 1982; Warren & Chopra, 1978) did
not hold for the Japanese subjects. This finding is also inconsistent with
the observation that Malaysian subjects show the usual pattern in which
women scored higher (Schumaker et al., 1988).

In this study, the Australian men scored at an average level consistent
with previous results with Australian subjects (Warren, 1982; Warren &
Chopra, 1978). However, although women scored at a level consistent with
those of one previous study (Warren & Chopra, 1978), they scored well below
the average observed in another study using a demographically similar
sample (Warren, 1982). Also, in this study, age had a very small but
statistically significant positive correlation with reported death anxiety.
This is consistent with other research demonstrating that age and proximity
to death tend to be reflected in higher death anxiety scores (e.g., Fiefel
& Branscomb, 1973; McMordie & Kumar, 1984).

Clearly, therefore, researchers making generalizations about cultures and
cultural factors in relation to death anxiety must use great caution. As
noted, Yamamoto et al. (1969) reported the differential reaction to
bereavement of Japanese widows following their traditional religious
practices and those who had embraced Western religion. If a culture could
be found that is relatively purer, then more precise statements might be
possible. Steele (1977), for example, notes how his study in
anthropological psychology, which focused on the ancient Mayan culture,
could illuminate modem dilemmas in relation to bereavement.

Within-culture differences confound matters further. Ablon (1971)
contrasted Samoan practice in relation to bereavement in the United States
with mainstream practices. Mathison (1970) drew attention to the variation
over time of cultural factors in bereavement. Lester (1971) did the same
for death attitudes more generally. Clearly, communications and cultural
adulteration play a part in clouding the relation between culture and death
anxiety.

A second conclusion concerns the concept of death anxiety itself that is a
relatively narrow and problematic aspect of death cognition and attitude.
The literature indicates a variety of postures in relation to death:
anxiety, acceptance, fear, threat, concern--and the last one as conscious
contemplation and negative evaluation (Klug & Boss, 1976). As was noted in
the introductory comments, a low death anxiety score may just as well
signal high death anxiety based on the idea that anxiety about death is
universal: We all defend ourselves against that anxiety, and those with low
scores are exposing the extent of their anxiety through the strength of
their defense as recorded in that low score. Thus, in this study, an
openness and a less defensive posture may have been present in the Japanese
subjects and a more closed, defensive outlook may have been present in the
Australian men.

This study, in short, has partly confirmed the hypothesis of cultural
variation on death anxiety; overall, Japanese subjects did score higher. It
has, however, produced results suggesting that this concept is
differentially apparent across cultures for men and women, and possibly for
different age groups. Further, the study suggests that death anxiety might
be too narrow a focus for the illumination of more complex and multifaceted
death attitudes and cognitions.

Requests for reprints should be sent to John F. Schumaker, Psycho-Social
Health Studies, University of Newcastle, P.O. Box 84, Waratah, NSW 2298
Australia.

TABLE 1 Mean Death Anxiety Scores and Standard Deviations for Japanese and
Australian Subjects

Legend for Chart:

A - Subjects
B - Men M
C - Men SD
D - Men n
E - Women M
F - Women SD
G - Women n
H - Men and women M
I - Men and women SD
J - Men and women n

A               B     C    D     E     F    G      H     I     J

Japanese      7.8   2.8   77   7.9   2.4   44   7.83   2.6   121

Australian    5.7   3.0   70   7.8   3.4   69   6.76   3.2   139

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Received December 3, 1990

~~~~~~~~

By JOHN F. SCHUMAKER, WILLIAM G. WARREN, The University of Newcastle,
Australia

By GARY GROTH-MARNAT Curtin University
                            -------------------