This talk explores how people in three societies, Japan, China and the United States, envision what happens to them after they die, and how these envisionings relate to their understanding of life before they die. Life after death may seem an unpromising topic for social scientists to explore since it is a matter of unverifiable speculation. But senses of life after death can have direct implications for how people live their lives in this world. In the United States, life before/after death remains defined by the Christian God in its moral guidance, which, whether believed in or not, cannot be escaped; life after death in Japan is defined by its myriad possibilities, a realm of personal choice felt to be lacking in the world before death; and life after death in China is defined by moral loss after the discrediting of communism, and a possibility through which people imagine a better China. Taken together, these analyses offer a glimpse at a novel new area for societal analysis.