December 03, 2004

Suicide in Japan
Three people were found dead in a car parked in the middle of a mountain forest, police said yesterday. This brings to 22 the number of Japanese who have died in suicide pacts in less than two months.

The cases appeared to be the latest in a string of group suicides in Japan, some of which have involved strangers who met over the internet to die together.
What say we blow this joint, and leave MoFi to the cobwebs?
posted by George the Curious 19 years ago
  • I had no idea that burning charcoal in an unventilated area could kill a person. I am a ranter when it concerns how impressionable I think people are. The ultimate example to me is when suicide gets a lot of media attention as a trend, and it leads to more suicides. Nutty.
  • I had no idea that burning charcoal in an unventilated area could kill a person. I am a ranter when it concerns how impressionable I think people are. The ultimate example to me is when suicide gets a lot of media attention as a trend, and it leads to more suicides. Nutty.
  • Well, the double comment looks bad, but it is somewhat consistent with the theme of the post of doing things in pairs.
  • Burning charcoal produces huge amounts of carbon monoxide, which is why it's a bad idea to grill burgers indoors.
  • I wonder if any of these kids saw this movie? Because that's the first thing I thought of. Art imitates life imitates art?
  • I am very surprised that Japan, Japan!, has suicides. Oh the humanity!
  • Does anyone else feel a sense of impending doom? Like we better shape up, cause it's almost the end of the show? Maybe its this damn repressed Catholicism...
  • I'm not sure, but I don't think the Japanese are particularly Catholic. Nor particularly repressed, if their graphic novels and vending machines are any indication...
  • errr. Metric buttloads of repression in everyday society => "those" graphic novels and vending machines, has always been how I've understood it. (simplified extremely.) [this is sad], of course, but on the other hand I can easily see it happening, being arranged online. On some obscure corner of the web - and most of them are obscure - you can immerse yourself in any manner of dysfunctional group thinking without being noticed or stopped by passersby. It's how subcultures work, to a positive extent, and it's how things like suicide pacts and pro-anorexia clubs work.
  • Well, I meant maybe why I felt that way (as in the Catholic ideas I try to repress), but I don't think it's just that. I think the feeling makes its self salient in the way our cultures are colliding over Bush. I think there's a sense of having to get things right and soon. The Graphic Novels are not a good indication at all. There's a phrase in Japan: "If a nail sticks out, you have to beat it down." But then again, I probably don't know as much as some other people on here who've actually lived there.
  • Does anyone else feel a sense of impending doom? Like we better shape up, cause it's almost the end of the show? No, that's perfectly ordinary paranoia. Everyone in the universe has that.
  • Hasn't this been a problem in Japan for several years, now? Especially 18-28(ish) year-olds in this massive computer age? As far as I understand it, the pressure that now rests on their shoulders, with an unbalanced economy, to succeed is tremendous. Certainly more so than in the U.S.
  • No, that's perfectly ordinary paranoia. Everyone in the universe has that. Yep.
  • tenaciouspettle : suicide circle was a terrible, awful, very bad, no good movie.
  • tenaciouspettle : suicide circle was a terrible, awful, very bad, no good movie. Hey, so was Gigli, and God knows how many suicides that film is responsible for.