More Tokyo train stations start using lights to stem suicides

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blvtzpk at 08:33 AM JST - 18th November

Except that it's the "rural" population/prefectures that have the higher suicide rates.

Rather than point out what make be a statistical misinterpretation, would you care to conjecture why this is happening amongst the rural population? Would it be that they living with a "disfuncational state of interpersonal relationships and...self imposed isolation" even though they're out in the sticks?
blvtzpk at 08:34 AM JST - 18th November

Except that it's the "rural" population/prefectures that have the higher suicide rates.

Correction:

Rather than point out what may be a statistical misinterpretation, would you care to conjecture why this is happening amongst the rural population? Would it be that they living with a "disfuncational state of interpersonal relationships and...self imposed isolation" even though they're out in the sticks?
kinniku at 12:17 PM JST - 18th November

blvtzpk,

I know you did not ask me, but I hope you don't mind my answering your question, which I do think is an interesting one. I think one of the main reasons for the larger number in the rural areas would be an even greater lack of gainful employment. This is also the reason young people generally choose to leave the rural areas in favor of urban ones. Of course, this is but one of many factors (such as the forclosure and failure of more and more families farms).
WhatMeWorry at 01:11 PM JST - 18th November

I'm coming out of a rough three year-period and live in inaka (where JR has trains-on topic!) Blue lights, despite the effort, won't help because when you've made up your mind, you've hit bottom and have gone through hell, you aquire tunnel vision and notice nothing around you save the way out. As many have posted, I wish there were more counseling available to Japanese and others and not just in the cities. Also, the view that counseling as an aid and not for "crazies," thus the stigma. This open view of therapy is new for the West also as I remember as a child that no one would be caught dead going to a "shrink." Now, everyone brags about their therapy sessions.
kinniku at 03:54 PM JST - 18th November

WhatMeWorry,

I am glad you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after three years. You have brought up some very excellent points. One of which is the general stigma against psychiatric therapy. This is slowly changing in Japan as well. However, there is still quite a way to go.

Unfortunately, even if the lights are effective, the effect would be temporary. Thus, it could possibly end up stemming people commiting suicides in train stations, but not necessarily stemming them after they have left the stations.
isthistheend at 09:19 PM JST - 18th November

Southsakai, thanks for the complement! By the way, tonight as I was riding home, and sitting on the row of seats where everyone sits next to each other (as opposed to single seats or shinkansen style), an lady a few years older than me begrudgingly (it seemed) sat down besides me and then hogged the narrow arm rest that exists only at that one spot in the row. I was in no mood to protest so I just gave it up, even though as I mentioned I was sitting there first. I think this is a very typcial miserliness of the J-people that is now making itself more visible with these tough economic times, which I also am enduring thank you. In conversations around me too, I hear alot of anti-western (specifically USA) comments to make themselves feel better. The ware-ware feel good type of comments. "I don't listen to USA ipods" etc. But then alot of people are studying English papers on the train, obviously hoping someday somehow to get out of here for employment in other locations. But the job market is tough EVERYWHERE nowadays except for maybe China and India. Anyways, I'd like to say, that the lights on JR are one idea, but not a very effective one for stemming suicides as has been pointed out. If we are to cure this planet and this country, we're going to really have to join forces, east and west, black, yellow, white and red, and get over this provincialism. Don't you think? Or is that IMPOSSIBLE on these islands, for another 1000 years?
realist at 01:24 AM JST - 19th November

Blue lights to stem the flood of suicides? Ive heard some zany things in my time, but this ranks among the zaniest.
pathat at 11:23 AM JST - 19th November

This is nonsense.

The only way to reduce the number of suicides in Japan is to improve the overall socio-economic conditions that have led to Japan having 30,000+ suicides for more than a decade running.
30061015 at 11:42 AM JST - 19th November

2,000 people committed suicide in Japan by jumping in front of a train

My father was a railroad engineer for 40 years in NYC when a teenage girl lay down in the tracks in front of his speeding train. There was no way to stop in time. When the train eventually stopped, he went back to confirm what happened after he radioed it in. It was three weeks before he could make himself go back to work.

How many railroad engineers are suffering trauma and nightmares as a result of the 2,000 horrific suicides in front of Jtrains?
isthistheend at 12:08 PM JST - 19th November

30061015, that's the point! This proble will not be fixed by using lights, unless those lights are inside people's brains to step up to the plate and confront this dilemma facing the people and our lives today. Think about it. Japan has safety the envy of many countries. Why should people take their own lives, is a paradox too deep to answer. But for beginnings, how about developing a compassionate people, a step beyond the ware-ware DAKE mentality.
30061015 at 02:17 PM JST - 19th November

isthistheend

Why should people take their own lives

Because they believe that they have no other choices left. Its one thing to be been boxed in by the constricting economy, but even more damning to be hostage to the abstract perceptions that are reinforced by social stigma ( the need to "gaman" to the gates of Hell) while denying the stress, depression and mental instability that go with it. Until Japan realizes that it is wound up too tightly, the country will continue to hemorrhage.
kirakira25 at 04:47 PM JST - 20th November

I think this is a combination of what 30061015 says - that Japan is wound up too tightly, but also my own theory I have been considering for a while now:

I think with the advent of the internet, global communications and so forth, the Japanese, previously isolated, have particularly in recent years had the opportunity to be exposed more and more to what is going on outside Japan`s borders - and it must be pretty galling to see happy, free people around the developed world while their own economy tanks and they have all the social and corporate, not to mention financial pressures on them.

Not putting this very well (brain not working well right now!) but it is just a theory I am thinking about....
sf2k at 12:44 PM JST - 22nd November

play some jazz too while they're at it. A Kind of Blue
Hirota56 at 07:36 PM JST - 22nd November

Qoute Goethe- the philosopher(sic):

"Let there be Light".
Netgaijin at 02:49 PM JST - 25th November

I have another suggestion.

Maybe they can put up movable bars, like they do in front of car parks, which go up and down at the press of a button, about a meter before the boarding gate of the trains? It would be closed before the train completely stops.

It would be an expensive option, but if people can be stopped to go near the rails before the train stops, you will not have people jumping in front of the train anymore. This can be manned by the same pushers and shovers who are employed to assist boarding. Though some will dodge and jump, I think you will solve the majority of the problem.

Of course better education and counseling can solve the problem at the root, but before that, this has to do.