POPULATION-JAPAN: Friends in Cyberspace Unite in Death

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Oct 15 2004 (IPS) - Loneliness, financial insecurity and poor communication skills were highlighted as the underlying causes of a spate of shocking group suicide pacts in Japan this week.

The horrifying discovery on Tuesday by police of nine bodies in two parked cars with charcoal stoves at their feet and the windows sealed from inside is believed to be Japan’s largest group suicide pact.

According to media reports, Japanese police first rushed to a van in a deserted lot in Saitama prefecture northwest of Tokyo after receiving a call from a friend of a victim. But they failed to reach it in time, finding seven dead – four men and three women, including teenagers and a 33-year-old mother.

The other two women were in a rented car at an isolated temple in Yokosuka, about 60 miles southwest of the capital.

Police said there were striking similarities between the two cases. The discoveries were the latest in a rash of suicide pacts that have left dozens of Japanese dead in recent years.

Police reports trickling out this week indicate the seven, in the first case, had got to know each other through the Internet. All were addicted to web surfing with a penchant for logging on to suicide sites which number about 8,000 in Japan.

The oldest person who died – the 33 year-old woman – is suspected of luring the others by posting messages on her suicide site writing she was looking for others to die together.

”Modern social ills coupled with the powers of the Internet, makes-up the worst possible scenario for the growing number of suicide-prone people in Japan. We are now up against a more dangerous phenomenon when it comes to offering protection,” Sumiko Kitagawa, spokesman for the Tokyo-based Life Line Support Hotline, explains to IPS.

Kitagawa, an expert counselor, is trying to understand the horrifying news of Tuesday’s suicide pact.

In late September, three men and a woman also killed themselves in another group suicide using the same method.

Suicide web sites are easy to find. They post disclaimers about the dangers of their content, which includes death wishes and exchanges on methods of dying. Some Japanese-language sites feature lists of materials necessary for self-asphyxiation and ready-made kits for sale.

”The preference for dying in a group is peculiar to Japanese society where group mentality is deeply ingrained,” says Kitagawa. ”The woman was afraid to die alone.”

Police investigations on the seven, in the first case, revealed that they grappled with problems such as unemployment, failed university entrance exams and not having close friends.

Reports on the alleged ringleader, published in the Japanese media, paints an even more pathetic story.

The mother of two young children was twice divorced, had lived in the United States, and was a victim of domestic violence.

She left a message to her children before taking her life that read: ”Mother is going to die but do not worry. Please forgive me.”

Comments from family members indicate the woman had not consulted them for support and the story was the same for others in the group.

While doctors had prescribed anti-depressants for some of the victims, there were no signs that the youths communicated well with their friends or family.

For example, the father of one of the dead teenagers said his son’s last words were only: ” I am going out.”

He told reporters his son was constantly depressed because he could not find a job.

The story, now, unfolding reveals the chilling horror of how deeply engrossed the seven were in wanting to kill themselves and the 33-year-old woman’s link to the second incident.

The group of seven set their first meeting in Saitama and drove to a forest in a van.

They then parked the vehicle on a mountain road, taped the windows tightly, bound themselves to one another at their wrists and waists, burned a charcoal stove inside and swallowed sleeping pills. All seven died of carbon monoxide poisoning as they had planned.

Several kilometers away, two women, in a rented car also died in a similar manner.

According to police, one of the women knew the alleged ringleader of the first group and had failed in a suicide attempt a week ago.

”The case illustrates a situation that we cannot control because the Internet poses an insidious hold on its viewers. Prevention is possible when people reach out to counselors who talk to them. With the Internet there is no human touch,” points out Kitagawa.

The situation is of particular concern for counselors given the rising rates of suicide in Japan. A record 34,427 people killed themselves in 2003 – an average of four a day.

An increase has been noted among people in their 30s – almost 5,000, up 700 from the previous year. For those in their 20s, the figure was 3,335, up 335 from the previous year.

Education expert Tamotsu Sengotsu blames loneliness and a lack of ability to adjust to society for young Japanese turning to the Internet for comfort.

”Today’s generation faces no crucial issues. Young people are affluent and are free to do what ever they want in Japanese society,” Sengotsu tells IPS. ”They are thus like pieces of driftwood with no strong alliance to anything. This leads them to turn to total strangers to find a sense of belonging in anything, even in death.”