worker can be the wife that also works out of the house.

This results in changes in family and community structures. These changes affect the tradition of organizing funerals. The changes include the rapid growth of funeral company, resulting in impression of a commercialization of funerals. Moreover, there are also changes in how they handle the bodies or the stiff, which was originally buried into the ground, to become cremated. This is because of the increasing number of cremation facilities, so it makes it easier for people to have a cremation. There is also a change in the image of funeral ceremonies, especially the terrifying image of the soul. The changes described by previous authors are general changes in the industry of funeral ceremonies. They talked about the transition process of funeral industry in Japan globaly, but I would like to examine the transitions of funeral ceremonies in more detail. In this study, my observation focus on two main points ; the type of the funeral and the content of the funeral ceremony itself. Funerals in Japan are usually divided into two types, namely: private funeral or Missou ( ) and formal funeral or Honsou ( ). The content of the funeral ceremony includes three main points, that are ; time and place of funeral ceremony, material of funeral ceremony and traditional funeral. From my observations I try to show the transition of funeral ceremony in Aichi-ken during the period of 56 years (1921-1977). The data that I have analyzed was from a collection of funeral ceremonial records of this funeral company in Aichi-ken during the period of 56 years (1921-1977). I have observed 175 cases of funeral ceremonies that have been reported with the 709 photographs. The data consist of the name and the background of the deceased, the name of funeral leader or Mosyu ( ), the home address, the date of death, the religious affiliation and the day and place of funeral ceremony with some photographs. This data may not represent the whole illustration of changes of funeral ceremonies in Japan, however it could represent the changes of funeral ceremonies which were organized within the same company in a certain time and place. Aichi prefecture located near the center of the Japan main island of Honsh, with wide area 5,153.81 km or approximately 1.36% of the total surface area of Japan.The western part of the prefecture is dominated by Nagoya, Japan's fourth largest city, and its suburbs, while the eastern part is less densely populated but still contains several major industrial centers.