Korean society is certainly not immune from the “not in my backyard” syndrome. Vehement resistance from residents have thwarted or shelved many projects to build nuclear waste storage facilities, garbage furnaces and even schools for physically or mentally disabled students.

The contradiction between the syndrome gripping Koreans and their changing attitudes toward other aspects of life is highlighted most vividly by figures about cremation.

Statistics released by the Health and Welfare Ministry last week showed that 71.1 percent of the people who died last year were cremated, nearly twice the rate of 38.3 percent a decade earlier. Cremations are expected to continue rising sharply in the coming years as the population is rapidly aging and more people choose to be cremated rather than buried after their death.

Bereaved family members, however, will find it increasingly hard to use a crematorium in their neighborhood. The 53 facilities across the country have an overall capacity to handle demand on a national level but the problem is that there is no crematorium in most local communities, as residents do not want them built in their neighborhood.

As a result, bereaved families often take the body by car to a crematorium hours away after waiting for days. The shortage of crematoriums is growing particularly severe in the densely-populated Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul. Several cities and counties in the province have been forced to cancel or shelve crematorium construction plans in the face of vehement opposition from residents.

A new cremation facility in Seoul opened in January after a decade of construction work hampered by protests in the neighborhood. It proved that worries over environmental pollution and bad smells were groundless.

Experts note that it is inevitable for three or four local administrative units to set up a joint facility to cope with increasing demand for cremations in their areas. It does not make sense that people want their bodies to be cremated while opposing the construction of a related facility near their home. They should recognize that for a long time cremation facilities have been run in the residential areas and near schools in many countries.

Koreans have to alter their attitude toward cremation facilities to align with their views on the way their bodies are handled after death. Hopefully, such change could ease the NIMBY syndrome in general.