Suicides in Japan: this is getting way out of hand
As anyone who lives here in Japan or reads Japanese news can see, the suicide rate here is a big problem. In 2005 there were over 32,000 suicides and Japan has the second highest suicide rate of all OECD countries (S. Korea being top) and the 10th highest in the world (Lithuania topping that list). There is never a week goes by that you don’t read at least one story in the news about someone killing themselves by jumping off a bridge (the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo seems a popular spot), overdosing on someone of 
gassing themselves to death (most popular at the moment).
The most recent high profile suicide has been that of Ako Kawada (see right). Kawada was a 29 year old TV announcer who had worked on TBS here in Japan for 5 years. Last year she left TBS and started to branch out doing some freelance announcing on TV Asahi. On her blog last week she said that she was feeling really worn down and needed a break from things. It seems like things came to a head over the weekend. At 6am on Monday morning, she was found slumped in the drivers seat of her car with a pair of charcoal briquettes in there. She was already dead when the police arrived? It always baffles me to think about what could cause someone who’s young, beautiful, and seemingly doing very well in her career field of choice decide that taking her life is the best way to solve her problems.
Last year the Japanese media almost ended up destroying the life of a singer called Kago Ai, who used to sing in a J-pop group called Morning Musume. In Japan your pop stars have to be squeaky clean and if you do the slightest thing wrong, you will be crucified for it. Anyway, photos came out of Ai smoking underage (shock, horror!) and holding hands with a boyfriend (even more shock and horror!). The media had a field day about how much of a failure she was, and Ai was promptly fired from the band and her management company. It started a very quick downward spiral which culminated in her slitting her wrists. Fortunately she was saved and has made a recovery, but still has the scars on her wrists as testament to what could have happened. gI still have the scars where I cut my wrists… I’ve made up my mind never to do such a thing again” she said in a recent press conference. One interesting point to note about Ai’s situation was the reaction of her management company. As soon as the first of these two scandals came out, the Up-Front Agency distanced themselves from her, and she was removed from Morning Musume. When the second scandal emerged, they dropped her straight away. Even in the companies statement’s, there was nothing said about supporting her, or hoping that she could get over these scandals in the near future. It seemed the most important thing was for the company to retain integrity and not really care about Ai and what her problems were.
But for every Kago Ai and Ako Kawada, there are a whole bunch of nameless and faceless people who commit suicide each day here in Japan. When you come to think of it, there are around 100 suicides each day here so it’s very possible that someone has taken their life here in Japan for whatever reason. In 1998 there was a big jump of 35% in Japan’s suicide rate. Many put this down to the Japanese economic bubble bursting and the rise in the Asian Tiger economies. Japanese businesses were put under lots of pressure to increase efficiency, and many entrepreneurs who thought that the money would always be flowing in found themselves out of work, out of money and out of their material possessions. But since then the rate has kept on rising.
As I mentioned above, one reason could be the lack of a decent support structure for people who are depressed. I have an infinite amount of respect for the work of the Samaritans in the UK, and the number of lives they must have saved is immense. But there do not appear to be any support organizations in place here, whether it be for abused spouses or those contemplating suicide and needing to talk to someone. There is a big mentality of not talking about your problems here, and just dealing with them. If you can’t, then suicide is still perceived by some as being an honourable way out.
Which brings us onto the next issue and reason why the rate may be so high. Despite suicides being in the news numerous times each week, there seem to be very few schemes or initiatives being put into place to stop these needless deaths. The government says it wants to decrease figures, but the rhetoric they are coming out with suggest to many that the only reason they have an interest in it is because of the way the country might be perceived by foreigner governments if the rate is so high. Now I don’t know how popular these kind of sites are in the West, but in Japan there are many websites which will link people who want to kill themselves. Such sites are well documented, and discuss places to do it, the best techniques to make sure it is successful and much more. A number of pages also offer a community-type service, where you can link and meet up with people so you can commit suicide together. This is meant for people who either are too scared to kill themselves alone, or who think they might not be able to do it themselves. As I write this, my mind goes back a couple of months to reading about a pair of sisters who leapt to their deaths from a building. They were found on the ground, holding hands but also with their wrists bound together. This ensured that neither of them backed out at the very last second. If one person jumped, they were both going.
One of the increasingly popular ways to commit suicide in Japan is by using gas. Many people make hydrogen sulphide gas from chemicals and substances you can find at any department store or hardware store. The gas is pungent smelling, but I believe it has a quick and deadly effect. The major problem with something like that is that it is easy for others to be affected. In Japan, it is common for people to write a message on the front of their apartment door or block, warning them not to enter as there is hydrogen sulphide there. This is a clear sign that someone is trying to end their life.
There have been a number of cases (I remember one in Otaru in Hokkaido) where a large number of people had to be evacuated because there has been a large amount of this gas going out in a given area. The government has seen this rise in the hydrogen-sulphide related deaths and is trying to do a little to curb it. The government is asking internet service provider companies in Japan to block pages which show people how to make hydrogen sulphide and give them a way to kill themselves. But surely this measure is trivial at best. There is no doubt that the intenet has made almost any information accessible to anyone in the world ((you can find out how to make a nuclear bomb online if you want!), but blocking access to it will not work. For a start, new sites will crop up every day in Japanese and other languages. There would be no way to ensure that all these sites are blocked. Secondly, as the ban on Mein Kampf has shown, once you have made something public initially, a ban will have a very limited effect. If people want to get access to that information, they will find a way. Whether it’s through websites themselves, contacting their friends to email them the information or whatever else, it will be easy to acquire. The government has defended this request, saying that the information is harmful to people and should therefore be banned. But then that opens up a whole Pandora’s Box of issues. Is a website showing how to make hydrogen sulphide harmful, but a comic book showing the rape of a schoolgirl acceptable? According to the government, this seems to be the case. And the last thing that needs to be considered is that hydrogen sulphide is just one way to end your life. If someone has reached the stage when they are planning their own death, not being able to find a good website isn’t going to dissuade you too much. Once that happens, that razor blade in your bathroom cabinet starts to look a lot more attractive. What will follow after that: a ban on Gillette Mach 3s?
The government is trying to deal with the problem but from the wrong viewpoint entirely. They need to start looking at what is causing people to commit suicide at the astronomical rates seen in Japan. Whether it’s the “voluntary” overtime that everyone is pretty much forced to commit to, the bullying that goes on unnoticed in schools & workplaces, the lack of people and organizations to help those feeling down, or the decrease in corporate responsibility towards their employees, action needs to be taken. Hopefully something will be done before the population here in Japan drops even more
or Discuss this Article
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Big in Japan | Another sad suicide pingbacked on June 2, 2008, 4:27 pm
- Big in Japan | Suicides in Japan: no support for people in need pingbacked on June 9, 2008, 3:12 pm
- Big in Japan | Ako Kawada suicide - mother speaks out pingbacked on August 15, 2008, 11:21 am