Across from a noodle shop in a Yokohama suburb, Hisayoshi Teramura's inn looks much like any other small lodging¹ that dots the port city. Occasionally, it's even mistaken for a love hotel by couples hankering for some time beneath the sheets.

横滨郊区的一家面馆对面，寺村久佳的小店看起来和遍布在这个港口城市中的其他小旅馆没什么差别。偶尔还会有想共度春宵的情侣将其误认为是情人酒店。

But Teramura's place is neither a love nest nor a pit stop for tired travelers. The white and grey tiled building is a corpse²（尸体） hotel, its 18 deceased guests tucked up in refrigerated coffins³.

"We tell them we only have cold rooms," Teramura quips（嘲弄） when asked how his staff respond to unwary（粗心的） lovers looking for a room.

The daily rate at Lastel, as it is known, is 12,000 yen⁴ ($157). For that fee, bereaved⁵（丧失的） families can check in their dead while they wait their turn in the queue for one of the city's overworked crematoriums（火葬场） .

Death is a rare booming market in stagnant⁶ Japan and Teramura's new venture is just one example of how businessmen are trying to tap it.

In 2010, according to government records, 1.2 million people passed away, giving the country an annual death rate of 0.95 percent versus⁷ 0.84 percent in the United States, which is also the global average.

The rate of deaths is on the increase. Last year, there were an extra 55,000 dead and over the past decade, an average of 23,000 more people have died each year in Japan.

Annual deaths are expected to peak at 1.66 million in 2040 as the bulk of the nation's baby boomer generation expires. By then, Japan's population will have shrunk by around 20 million people, an unprecedented⁸ die off for a nation neither at war or blighted⁹（枯萎） by famine.

Although two decades of economic malaise（不舒服） has weighed on incomes, a tradition on splashing out on ceremonies means the Japanese still pay an average of 1.2 million yen on flowers, urns¹⁰, coffins and other funeral expenses. It adds up to a market worth a whopping $21 billion a year, or twice what Americans spend annually¹¹ on funerals.

"There's been a rush into the market," says Teramura, who founded cemetery¹² developer company Nichiryoku 45 years ago. Even Japan's second biggest retail¹³ chain, Aeon¹⁴, rail companies and the nation's biggest farmers association, Japan Agriculture are getting into the business, he notes.