In such cases, the remains are usually reclassified as muen botoke (a person who has died leaving nobody to look after his or her grave) and reburied in a communal grave; but in the fiscal year of 2006, as reported by the Yomiuri Shimbun (the Daily Yomiuri) on February 18, 2005, in the case of the Aoyama Cemetery the Tokyo Metropolitan Government re-evaluated 78 graves of Oyatoi-gaikokujin for which the maintenance fee has not been paid as important from the perspective of cultural history, and it plans to preserve them as historical sites.
通例であれば無縁仏として集合墳墓に改葬されるところだが、青山霊園の場合、2006年度に東京都側が78基にのぼる管理費滞納お雇い外国人墓所を文化史的に再評価し、史跡として保護する方針であることが2005年2月18日の読売新聞で報じられた。