Japanese Suicide -

[vicki]

From the NY Times yesterday:

Strangers in Life Join Hands in Death as the Web Becomes a Tool for Suicide in Japan By JAMES BROOKE

Published: October 18, 2004

OKYO, Oct. 17 - On Sept. 22, a 34-year-old mother of two posted an Internet notice looking for companions for a group suicide. On Oct. 5, the police found her and three other women barely alive; they were sealing themselves into a tent with a burning charcoal stove, intending to succumb to carbon monoxide.

The next day, the woman posted a second recruiting notice on a Web site, saying, "I know the method and the process because I have an experience of failing to commit suicide."

By Monday night, her notice had drawn six volunteers from all over Japan. Four were 20-years-olds, including a university student from Aomori, 350 miles north of Tokyo; a part-time worker from Osaka, 250 miles to the west; and an unemployed woman from Saga, 600 miles west.

Strangers in life, the seven found a bond in death. Working methodically, they parked a rented van at dusk on a mountain park road west of Tokyo, wrote an e-mail message with their precise location and programmed a cellphone to send it after they were dead. They sealed the van from the inside, took sleeping pills, lit charcoal braziers, and tied their wrists and torsos together.

Several miles away, at the same time, the same method of self-asphyxiation was taking the lives of two women in their 20's. One had taken part in the failed attempt a week earlier with the organizer of the seven in the van. Apparently part of the same group, the two in the car had not traveled with the others in the van, probably because of Japan's strict seat-belt laws. The police found the victims inside the two vehicles on Tuesday morning.

What seems to have brought all nine together - just long enough to kill themselves - are "suicide sites" on the Internet.

For Japanese with high-speed Internet access, which a majority of homes now have, this suicide subculture is just a few key strokes away. On a recent day, typing the Japanese words for "suicide" and "manual" into the Japanese version of the Google search engine yielded 29,761 citations. Suicide sites have names like "Underground Suicide" and "Deadline.''

"Are you thinking of killing yourself?" asks one site as two cartoon skeletons bob up and down mocking an image of the Virgin Mary. Before blood red colors drip over the macabre scene, the site continues, "If you are sure, I will take you there."

Deeper in the site, there lies a slide show of "proper" places to commit suicide. Favored spots - online and in reality - are forests with views of Mt. Fuji, a revered national symbol.

Another section evaluates 10 methods of committing suicide, rating them for "pain," "chance of success" and "annoyance to other people." Unlike the excruciating pain of the disemboweling rite of the ancient samurai, hara-kiri, today's suicidal youth seem to prefer drifting off. Jumping in front of commuter trains, some sites note, can leave a family facing a railroad company bill of up to $65,000 in cleanup costs.

In chat rooms, morbid thoughts reign.

"Whoever wants to die, should die," begins one typically bleak posting. "Whoever wants to live, should live." Undoubtedly, much of the Internet traffic is confined to depressed people with a taste for the macabre. Strong, morbid undercurrents churn through Japanese society. A suicide manual became a bestseller in the late 1990's and a movie about high school suicide, "Suicide Club," became a minor hit last year.

But about once a month since January 2002, Japan has recorded a group suicide, successful or attempted, where the participants had linked up on the Internet.

Last year's toll of 34 Internet-related suicides was only a tiny fraction of 34,427 suicides recorded in Japan, a high rate relative to Western countries, but there are disturbing trends. For one, most Japanese suicide victims are middle-aged or elderly men. But the Internet suicide victims tend to be young adults, largely people in their 20's.

Free speech laws leave the police largely powerless to curb the sites. But psychiatrists and social workers are starting to speak out.

"Here is the convenience of the Internet: Anyone who wants to die can just sign on to such a site," Mafumi Usui, a professor of sociopsychology at Niigata Seiryo University, said in an interview. "If you are a real friend in a real life, you know your friend's family, job and life, and can stop him if he tries to kill himself. But on the Web site, these people bond to each other only on the point of committing suicide. They don't have any tools to stop others from dying."

Not only are suicidal people feeding off each other, but lonely people are joining a group, a social unit that often is paramount in Japan. Professor Usui added, "If you try to stop it, it means that you are getting out of the group."

With Japan an affluent society, young people are often without the overriding goals that drove their grandparents to fight World War II, and their parents to rebuild the devastated country afterward. Last year, almost one third of 100 Japanese teenagers polled by Aera, a magazine aimed at young adults, said they had considered suicide, largely for what they themselves acknowledged as "trivial reasons."

"When they come across a minor trouble, they get distressed," said Dr. Harufusa Higano, a psychiatrist who directs a clinic here. Recalling one young woman who had attempted suicide by cutting her wrists, he said: "She told me, 'I could not get a Gucci handbag and had to end up with a Japan-made. I want to die.' "

Last week's group suicide pact, apparently the largest in modern Japan, has rapidly jumped from somber national television coverage to the Internet underworld and BBS's, or bulletin boards.

Next, a larger group will try, "to make a record," Dr. Higano said. "That was actually written on a Web site BBS I found yesterday."__________________

[skydragoness]

Good post Vicki.

I hear a lot about New Zealand having a high teen suicide rate as well;and for the same trivial reasons. The Japanese always had a suicide culture though, from the feudal days up till now. Now, the reasons are much more perplexing though, i guess it must be because its such a high pressure society. I hear of some people taking their lives because they are ill and they feel as though they are burdening the family, or people who were sole-breadwinners for their family who lose their job take their lives often too, and students who didn't make the entrance exams. The tracks for the high-speed trains have to have very high fences on the side, because people throw themselves in front of the train daily.

I watched Suicide Club, it's a very disturbing movie.

[Nathan]

If you need a group to support you into suicide, you OBVIOUSLY are a failure at even suicide. Thats just pathetic. People, if you really want to kill yourself, do it in a very clean way in a place that you will be found quickly, that way it causes the least amount of trouble to anyone else. It's just the nice thing to do!

[AZhitman]

That's distressing.

As an undergrad psych student, I participated in some research, wherein the subjets were suicide attempt survivors. An overwhelming majority of them indicated that while self-harm seemed to be the "only way out" at the time, somewhere during the process their mind changed and they (almost universally) were overcome with a strong will to live. Those who were conscious spoke of feeling they would "do anything" if they could only survive.

The few who did not report this abrupt change of heart were given a battery of testing and subsequently diagnosed with an Axis II mental illness.

Sad to see that in some of the most comfortable and affluent societies, people still cannot find enough joy to sustain themselves.

[Fenvy]

My japanese friend told me about this before as it's becoming a growing issue.

The problem, I think, lies in the foundation of the society itself.

But I am not entirely against self euthanasia, especally if participants is willing to consider "annoyance to other people"

[w1ngzer0]

i agree with nathan. The lady shouldn't even bothered looking for them

[gabossie]

I really wanted to respond to this earlier, and I'd really like to be able to contribute something now, but I'm just not sure what to say. The concept of suicide has always kinda escaped me. If nothing else, I could never justify passing the pain that I felt in life on to my family and friends by killing myself.

[Fenvy]

if you have friends/family they would probably be more than happy to help you.

Some people don't have firends or familes.

[NIGHTfall_240sx]

i actually read this story on another forum a few weeks ago, but someone translated it (on a global webmaster forum)

[base9se]

They're mostly teens & elderly because they have expectations. And when that expectation falls short, their only way out is suicide? Why set such a high standard for yourself? Gucci bag? C'mon there are so many more things in life than one can experience. Why be so materialistic? Obsessing over things.

As for people who have no social life I feel sorry for them. Go out and enjoy life!

[Tsukai240]

wow. i feel bad for their families and friends, but it was a selfish and stupid act. there is no sepuku in this day and age. self loathing, major depression, and terminal mental/physical sickness must be extremely difficult to live with. the only good thing i can say is that i hope the victims finaly found peace.

BTW; this is simmilar to the japaneese movie"suicide club". FREAKY!!!

[skydragoness]

BTW; this is simmilar to the japaneese movie"suicide club". FREAKY!!!

that movie was already referred to in vicki's original post.

[ZeroS13]

When my Japanese wife grew up in Japan, she hated the pressures of everyday life. The pressures of school, work and everything else simply stressed her out. She turned to cigarettes and booze to drown her sorrow but luckily that all changed when her Grandparents moved in. They taught her the joys of life and gave her the inspiration to change. She quit smoking and only drinks wine / coolers socially.

Without a support system, anyone can fall through the cracks. It's all very sad...

[cosmo]

BTW; this is simmilar to the japaneese movie"suicide club". FREAKY!!!

Is that the movie where 54(or somthing around that #) hold hands and jump off a bridge simultaniously, which sets off a whole bunch of other suicides throughout Japan? I saw a movie like that at Best Buy one day, and wanted to get, but had no fundage, and now I can't remember what it's called. Maybe somebody can help.

Anyways, suicide is just selfish. Yeah your life sucks, but you're just gonna ruin everyones lives you've ever been apart of. That's just selfish to me.

[vicki]

I think that there's so much more pressure from Japanese society to be perfect. In response to these recent suicides, the government and school system has, in fact, tried to move away from intensive testing procedures, etc. I don't think the government can regulate these types of sites as some people propose. It's simply impossible and if they don't do it over the internet, people will definitely find other means of rallying people to commit suicide with them. Saito, a Methodist minister who started the first Japanese anti-suicide hotline, said that he believes that these people are dying together because it's more comforting and there's a sense of solace. What we need to do is change the culture. Get to the root of the problem and see what is driving these people to commit suicide. They don't care that it's not an honorable means to end their lives, they're just so miserable and depressed. And if religion and society doesn't tell you it's wrong, then why not do it?

[Dattebayo]

it all sounds very simiilar to the suisides that occurred in Japan back between '95-'98.

I remember it had something to do with the neo-geisha movement? I dont know but they tied it all to shintoism and that life is a part of death and personal fulfillment is only achieved and understood at the time of death.

I could be way off here but i read some stuff about this about a year ago.

I really dont buy that gucci handbag crap. Sorry, but there are/were way more issues at hand for that girl than her handbag choice.

[JESTER]

What is the world coming to. Web sites to help people kill them selves.

It baffles me why anyone would try to kill them selves in the first place. I want to live as long as possible. Matter of fact, I want to live longer than that. I would seriously consider killing someone else, but never my self. I love me. I love breathing. It is a habit I got into about 28 years ago, and I would like to continue that as long as possible.

To these people out there wanting to kill them selves, STOP! Think about what you are doing. Get some help. Talk to a preacher, or a shrink. I don't care what the problem is, it is not bad enough that dying is a better choice.

[Tsukai240]

BTW; this is simmilar to the japaneese movie"suicide club". FREAKY!!!

that movie was already referred to in vicki's original post.

SO!

[Nathan]

It baffles me why anyone would try to kill them selves in the first place.

It's very simple, many people look at the world around them and don't see anything redeeming about it. Quite frequently, suicide appears to be either the only way out, or the simplist way out. Yes suicide is taking the easy way out and giving up, yes its a cowardly thing to do. BUT, many suicidal people allready consider themselves failures at everything, and the quick and easy release of suicide holds a definite allure for them, despite the fact that its the ultimate act of failure.

[Mr1der]

I've always viewed suicide for the weak.

seems like they're trying to take the easy way out and run from the problems instead of meeting them head on and correcting them.

probably better off without them if that's truly what they wanna do.

it's even worse when it's a parent doing it. That's giving up on your family. Pretty damn ****in' weak right there.