Suicide in Japan.
 

こんにちは皆さん、

I am in the process of gathering information for my research project about suicide in japan and I just wanted to ask everyone a few questions...feel free to comment with any other arguments or opinions you have on the topic.

1. Why do you think Japan has one of the highest suicides rates in the world?

2. How can these suicide rates be decreased in the future?

3. Do you think this high rate of suicide is due to the effects of the globalization in Japan?

*I'm not asking if suicide in Japan is right or wrong with it's past history of ritualistic suicide-just, why is it increasing now?

Any answer will help! Please leave your age and general location in the world as well!!

ありがとうございました！

1) Culturally there is no shame in committing suicide when you make a major mistake. There is a long tradition of suicide in Japanese history. Traditionally it is an honorable act.

2) It depends on why people commit suicide. Some do it for financial reasons, others because of hazing, political reasons, copycats, etc.

3) No. Where did you come up with that idea?

Thank you for your response! And to answer your question I wanted to argue that the increase of suicide in Japan is a result of Westernization, commercialism and the materialism that is really at the root of globalization...I don't think my argument is completely in the wrong...I have a feeling I worded that last question a bit strangely. Sorry.

1. I think that Japan could have the highest in the world possibly because of peoples honr and sucsessfulness. It really just depends if that person is ashamed or not.

2. They can be decreased by a happier and more succsessful lifetime.

3. Not that sure what globalization means but I do think that America has its effects on other counrty's cultires and ways of life.

I'm 13 and I live in the US.
Hope this helps:vsign:

I am curious as to how you would come to that conclusion, as I don't see the possible correlations.

The three main reasons for suicide in Japan are depression, illness and debt. A lot of those that do it are elderly.

1. Ditto what MMM said. It's always been far more acceptable to commit suicide in Japan as there's no great religious taboo associated with it.

2. It's possible that Japanese citizens could benefit from a more openly available mental health service.

3. No. That's crazy. If you want to say the financial situation of modern japan which has been turbulent ~as a result~ of dealings with outside economy is a factor in the suicide rate, then thats one thing. But Suicide is individual. You commit suicide you feel you've shamed and failed your family and the reasons for that sense of shame are deeply rooted in ~japanese~ culture. The debt situation may be caused by the outside world, but the tendency to resort to suicide is Japanese.

What do you think anyway? What's your angle on the situation and have you looked in detail at suicide demographics in Japan? I want to know how my information/opinion is going to be used in what seems to be a research essay.

Without pretending to know all about Japanese culture and tradition, I think there's not much doubt that suicide is, traditionally, not as frowned upon as it is in a lot of Western cultures. (Samurai seem to have been particularly big fans. :p)

We tend to see suicide as cowardice, (at least I do,) but as MMM says, the Japanese consider it somehow more honorable.

I also don't see how America plays into it all. As previously mentioned, American culture along with most other Western cultures does not really approve of suicide. After all, samurai were busy gutting themselves hundreds of years before modern-day America was even thought of.

Yes but isn't mainly caused by the connections with globalization and the pressure and responsibility that is placed upon the Japanese to succeed? Because of this they seem to commit suicide in atonement for their failure in life (debt, loss of job, etc.) I don't get how you can just take globalization out of the equation as suicide rises in Japan due to the effects of globalization Japan. In today's case, an economic depression...


Also, your answer will just provide for a general idea of how people view suicide in Japan and what some of the causes are, etc. It's nothing professional, trust me.

You seemed determined to associate suicide with globalization, but suicide is a personal act, where globalization is...global.

But I guess I am not sure what you mean by globalization here. Are you talking about westernization?

By that assumption you have to prove that Japan has been "westernized". With that, why would westernization lead to suicide? Even if Japan perceived itself as becoming westernized (and I am not convinced they do) wouldn't that make the suicide rate go down, as westernized Christian values do not allow for suicide?

Pressure to succeed and committing suicide because of failure has been a part of Japanese culture long before the West hit Japanese shores.

What are the effects of globalization in Japan that you are talking about?

I think you are trying to go this way Globalization leads to Economic Crisis in Japan leads to Higher Suicide, therefore Globalization leads to Higher Suicide, which is an incorrect conclusion.

Why wasn't the suicide rate higher in the 80s when Japan was globalizing all over the place during the bubble economy? Obviously when things are financially good and people are successful then suicide doesn't happen as much. Apparently economic failure is a key factor.

In my job in Japan I dealt with this a lot, most weren't elderly. Most of them were unhappy housewives followed by teenagers who wanted to "get back at someone" (parents, boy or girlfriend, peers).
The difference is that there is no stigma attached to it there like here in the West. I think things will change as Japanese adopt more Western beliefs.

It seems 30% of suicides in Japan are by people over the age of 60. I think that has to so with illness and not forcing their families to care for them. I am sure the rate in the US for people over 60 is much lower.

I have lived in Japan for 12 years and don't think your idea that suicide rates in Japan are high due to westernisation hold any water at all. As others have mentioned, unlike in the west, there is a tradition here of seeing suicide as an honourable way out, it didn't traditionally have the shameful stigma attached to it that it does in the west.

Commercialism and materialism, perhaps, but you would have to link them somehow to the more direct and obvious reasons here, the more common of which are stress and depression due to overwork, bullying and pressure to succeed at school, and debt problems. The last one is perhaps easiest to relate to commercialism etc, but I think you will that the others have their roots in Japanese culture rather than globalisation.

One thing that could be improved in Japan and that may have an effect on suicide rates is more support and understanding for people who are depressed or mentally ill- currently a lot of these problems are swept under the rug because people don't want to deal with them.

I have the NPA stats for suicides 1978 to,.2007? I don't think there are any newer details released, but there were over 12k suicides of individuals aged over 60 in 2007, just under double the next highest bracket, 50-59 (7000) and a mere 548 teenagers. Actually, there hasn't been a year since 1978 where more teenagers have committed suicide than 60+ people. Not sure about attempts though- maybe young people think about it more, or make more attempts, but with a lower 'sucess' rate.

Also teenagers tend to be the 'noisy' demographic for most things, which might explain why Bellyvis sees things otherwise.

And Like I said before, economic difficulties, pressure to suceed, etc etc are world-wide phenomena, yet the suicide rate of many countries has remained much more stable. Whatever it is driving the suicide rate in Japan, i think it is founded wholly in Japanese culture.

And so is the mental health service. Some well-known practices originated from Buddhist beliefs and are totally reverse to anything practiced in the west.

I think the OP's argument simplifies the situation far too much. Don't forget, suicide is somewhat 'contagious'. Stressed or depressed people are vulnerable, and the thought that many people commit suicide can lead them towards thoughts of it in the context of their own lives. Like knife crime; you hear a lot of people carry knives, get scared, start carrying a knife, and even if the fact was initially false, it starts to become true.

Actually if anything, I'd say the reverse of your argument. Japanese suicide culture is generally exported to the west, not imported.

My guess is more that elderly committing suicide aren`t presented as "suicide" if there is any way for them not to be. It`s easy to explain away the death of someone 60+, but not for a younger person. I can`t imagine any family outright admitting it was suicide, even to someone involved in the funeral process, unless they had no other choice.

Most suicides I saw were obvious, hanging, charcoal, jumping off building or in front of a train. Older people were more difficult to tell, and toxicology reports take weeks. As Nyoroin says, no family admitted to it unless it was unavoidable.

Charcoal? Asides from the alarming 'BBQing oneself' route, how does a person kill themselves with charcoal?

He's probably referring to burning charcoal in a closed space.

Ah, I see, it would deplete the oxygen. That makes more sense.

Rather than just depleting the oxygen in the room, burning charcoal creates carbon monoxide, which replaces the oxygen in your blood and causes death. People sometimes die accidentally when they sleep in rooms with heaters which produce carbon monoxide.

Good point. I know all about the affects of carbon monoxide, but I wasn't aware that burning charcoal produced CO. Most monoxide deaths I've ever heard of were (as you said) accidents via faulty heaters, or suicide by running a car in an enclosed space/ piping the exhaust into the car interior.

Sepuku!!

Suicide in Japan was not really associated with shame; it was a solution to a major crisis.