Suicide Prevention in Japan

choi

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Martin Fackler, At Japanese Cliffs, a Campaign to Combat Suicide . New York
Times, Dec. 18, 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/world/asia/18japan.html?scp=1&sq=fackler%20cliffs&st=cse

Quote:

Japan is "one of the world’s most suicide-prone nations. * * * The World
Health Organization says that people in Japan are now almost three times as
likely to kill themselves as are Americans.

"But the main cause [of Japan's high suicide rate], they say, is the nation
’s long economic decline. Suicides first surged to their recent high levels
in 1998, when traditional lifetime employment guarantees began to vanish,
and they have remained high as salaries and job security continued to erode.

"Mr. [Yukio] Shige says his approach to stopping suicides is quite simple:
when he finds a likely person, he walks up and gently begins a conversation.
The person, usually a man, quickly breaks down in tears, happy to find
someone to listen to his problems. 'They are just sitting there, alone,
hoping someone will talk to them'

My comment:
(a) SHIGE Yukio 茂 幸雄
(b) Tojimbo 東尋坊
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tojimbo
(b) Recently I read Chinese postings which quoted China's officials as
saying to a potential suicide that, "Do not jump from this building. Try the
next one;" or that " Do not jump from the first or second floor; go to the
fifth floor."


Compare these with what this New York Times report states,

"He [Mr. Shige] said he once stopped an elderly couple from Tokyo from
jumping and turned them over to city officials who he said gave them money
and told them to buy a ticket to the next town. Days later he received a
letter from the couple, mailed just before they committed suicide in a
neighboring prefecture. 'The authorities’ coldness outraged me,' said Mr.
Shige.

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