Japan sees wave of suicides using detergent-produced gas

Saturday 26th April, 05:44 AM JST

By Mari Yamaguchi

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12 Comments

rjd_jr at 07:39 AM JST - 26th April

Wow, horrible trend.
some14some at 08:13 AM JST - 26th April

Suicides in Japan sound very irresponsible, may be a luxury for world's second largest economy, country having world's 2nd largest foreign reserves and above all Asia's No.1 advance country. Only God may be regretting such deaths because HE has blessed the people of this island with longest life span on earth.
smithinjapan at 09:01 AM JST - 26th April

Some14 is bang on... these people are sick, and suicide is a total waste of the gift of life. Just looking at this homepage you can see at least 2 or 3 suicide reports, and that's only today's news (or yesterday's, at any rate).

Just sick... and just as sick, if not sicker, is the government's complete lack of a decent response; I mean, they do their damndest to cover up the stats, it seems, but that's about all. There should at the very least be a 'surge' in the number of support groups of ALL kinds.
raymech1 at 09:47 AM JST - 26th April

I hope they "do" more than "see" something about this. I hate to see the numbers on this at the end of the year...
capone at 09:56 AM JST - 26th April

the over-under this yr is gonna be 40000
blvtzpk at 11:40 AM JST - 26th April

As I have noted here before, any report of suicides in the print media in Australia is accompanied by the name and contact details for suicide prevention and support/counselling grouops. People have come to realise that the reports of suicides often lead some readers to the decision to follow suit and take their own lives. The referrals at the bottom of reports are at least a way of offering people another voice and advice. It might work here in Japan if the print media was to pick up on that idea. Just a thought.
telecasterplayer at 11:58 AM JST - 26th April

The government has been battling to contain the country’s alarmingly high suicide rate. The government said 32,155 people killed themselves in 2006.

Soulless corporate culture, mind-numbing and stressful jobs consisting of moving paper from one part of the office to another, nothing even remotely like a normal 8-hour day for most, growing class division, the disappearance of nature, evaporation of traditional spiritualism, growing alienation and techno crapola taking the place of human relationships.

Nah, I can totally understand why the government can't figure out what's wrong. What COULD be wrong with all of that?
dr_jones at 01:49 PM JST - 26th April

This will only be the tip of the iceberg! Releasing a suicide recipe like this in a country like Japan is like throwing a burning matchstick into a barrel of dynamite!
presidentbaka at 03:09 PM JST - 26th April

You have to wonder how much JT had a role in these suicides, given that they irresponsibly posted the chemicals needed, in a news story last week!
tclh at 07:31 PM JST - 26th April

OMG problem like this and Japan worries about one or two beef bones from America!!! Why can't Japanese people learn how to relax and take it easy?
proxy at 09:12 PM JST - 26th April

Hey, I have an idea! Why doesn't Japan force kids to go to school longer and have more homework. I'm sure that would put a stop to all the suicides.
DenshaDeGO at 10:30 PM JST - 26th April

I've spoken to suicidal Japanese before and they're so down in the dumps it's practically infectious. I don't know how they get that way, but I see it as a slippery slope, with little hope of return.

Not to be disrespectful but you'd think they could get away to a tropical vacation or get laid or something - anything to get them out of their funk.