Investors in Japan have been transfixed in recent weeks by a land grab for Kosaido, Tokyo’s dominant crematorium operator whose shares have soared 88 per cent before crashing by half.

The competition for potential control of the company has involved everyone from a secretive Chinese investor and one of the world’s biggest private equity groups to the family of former finance minister Taro Aso. The fight underscores the attraction of a sector that is increasingly being seen as one of North Asia’s growth opportunities: the death business.

Investors have been lured to the dependable, cash-generative sector by the irreversible trend of ageing societies in Asia. Adding to the attraction is that the small number of listed death-related companies are ripe for consolidation in fragmented markets.