{"id":599,"date":"2008-06-19T12:48:44","date_gmt":"2008-06-19T19:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2008\/06\/land-of-kamikaze-shocked-at-mass-suicide-sensation\/"},"modified":"2008-06-19T12:52:41","modified_gmt":"2008-06-19T19:52:41","slug":"land-of-kamikaze-shocked-at-mass-suicide-sensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2008\/06\/19\/land-of-kamikaze-shocked-at-mass-suicide-sensation\/","title":{"rendered":"Land Of Kamikaze Shocked At Mass Suicide Sensation"},"content":{"rendered":"

from the Times Online UK<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Japan gripped by suicide epidemic<\/h1>\n

Leo Lewis, Tokyo<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Poster<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Japanese professionals in their thirties are killing themselves at unprecedented rates, as the nation struggles with a runaway suicide epidemic.<\/p>\n

Newly published figures show that 30,093 people took their own lives in 2007 \u2014 a 2.9 per cent increase in a year \u2014 leaving the country as the most suicide-prone anywhere in the developed world and rendering government efforts to combat the problem a failure.<\/p>\n

Suicide rates remained highest among men \u2014 at 71 per cent of the total \u2014 and very high among Japan\u2019s rising population of over-60s. Geographically, most suicides took place in the prefecture of Yamanashi, where the forested foothills of Mount Fuji continue to attract the suicidal from around Japan.<\/p>\n

Government analysis of the figures, for the tenth year consecutive in which suicides have remained above 30,000 mark, has exposed a series of new and troubling trends: people in their thirties are the most likely to kill themselves, and work-related depression is emerging as a prime motive.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Psychologists, sociologists and other close observers of Japanese society believe that the country is in the grip of a full-blown crisis among its young working population. Experts say that high suicide rates and the recent spate of random stabbings in public places are symptoms of a malaise that the country has ignored for too long.<\/p>\n

Mika Tsutsumi, an economist and social analyst, said that the recent stabbings in Akihabara were worryingly predictable: the killing spree for which Tomohiro Kato was allegedly responsible was, she says, driven by a sense of hopelessness in the workplace. Underneath Japanese society is concealed \u201can invisible reserve army of Katos\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

Even more disturbing than the raw suicide figures, said police, was the astounding recent surge in people who have taken their lives by generating highly poisonous hydrogen sulphide gas from a combination of standard household products.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Unlike more traditional methods such as hanging or drugs overdoses, the production of hydrogen sulphide endangers people in the same building and turns what used to be private despair into a public event.<\/p>\n

Twenty-nine people used that method to end their lives last year, but after the formula for the gas was circulated widely on various \u201csuicide websites\u201d, it has taken on a sinister appeal to the desperate and lonely.<\/p>\n

Since February this year, 517 people have killed themselves using the gas, about half of them in their twenties, and its macabre popularity as a method of self-destruction shows no sign of waning.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The crisis of despair gripping young working Japanese has triggered plenty of official and media hand-wringing, though little in the way of change in corporate Japan. Wages remain low, and hierarchies rigid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in an uncomfortable and restrictive society where trivial matters are important,\u201d said Professor Kiyohiko Ikeda, a veteran social commentator at Waseda University. \u201cThe young feel a sense of deadlock; society does not accept minor mistakes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

[ click to read full article at Time Online<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from the Times Online UK Japan gripped by suicide epidemic Leo Lewis, Tokyo Japanese professionals in their thirties are killing themselves at unprecedented rates, as the nation struggles with a runaway suicide epidemic. Newly published figures show that 30,093 people took their own lives in 2007 \u2014 a 2.9 per cent increase in a year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}