The current cremation rate in Japan is over 99.9%; in the early Meiji period it was only 30 to 40%.

Roughly speaking YouTube explains the background behind Japan's cremation rate reaching over 99.9%. The cremation rate in the early Meiji period was only 30-40%, and the current common sense is that it is from recent years. Due to a combination of sanitary issues and legal developments, it rapidly spread from the 1960s to the 1950s. Read article