Japan and Suicide

[kj1980]

Once you've seen people committing suicide by jumping into an oncoming train off the train station right in front of you several times, nothing is shocking.

[GustaveElazul]

~truncated~

[Sugetsu]

Originally Posted by GustaveElazul

Are you talking about in real life?
I watched that movie "Suicide Club" or whatever and that had alot of that in it.

Offtopic:

Yes, It is sad but true. These things happen a lot in Japan. A friend of mine who lived there for over 10 years told me that many students commit suicide because education is taken with a HIGH LEVEL of priority in that country, so if someone fails the exam or finds out that it impossible for him to get into Tokyo university then...

Well that's what I know.

[Kyuven]

Originally Posted by Sugetsu

Offtopic:

Yes, It is sad but true. These things happen a lot in Japan. A friend of mine who lived there for over 10 years told me that many students commit suicide because education is taken with a HIGH LEVEL of priority in that country, so if someone fails the exam or finds out that it impossible for him to get into Tokyo university then...

Well that's what I know.

plus the way their economy is still in a recession...people lose jobs...get "restructured" (i never really understood what that meant...does it mean making employees unable to work and get paid thus forcing them to quit or outright firing them?)

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by Kyuven

plus the way their economy is still in a recession...people lose jobs...get "restructured" (i never really understood what that meant...does it mean making employees unable to work and get paid thus forcing them to quit or outright firing them?)

"Restructuring" is basically a euphemism for "our company is in bad shape, so we're going to have to lay you off in order to save money which is used to pay your salary."

[mememe]

Ok i'm not going to take my exams that seriously! But don't they know they could probably get degrees and jobs in other countries? What's the point of killing yourself over a stupid piece of paper when u can just use different ways to get into uni or job that u want!

[mantidor]

Originally Posted by kj1980

"Restructuring" is basically a euphemism for "our company is in bad shape, so we're going to have to lay you off in order to save money which is used to pay your salary."

that happens a lot here, companies have to let go a lot of employees very often, but I remember that labor in Japan is different, if you enter a company "usually" it means for life, while here people have to jump from job to job frequently, so I think I can assume that loosing your job in Japan is certainly a terrible thing, while here is bad but not that much, my mom has already been in more than ten companies...

I dont know, maybe we arent as spoiled? living in a third world country has its disadvantages, but people would never suicide for failing at college or not having jobs, and trust me I know many people who are in terrible situations, no job and three kids too feed, an to get a job is really difficult, the unemployment rate is extremely high, do they jump in front of a bus? no, they get on them and sell candies or whatever they can find, its humilliating sometimes, but they do it anyway. Same with students, many of them sing in public transport or sell incience to help with the carreer costs.

[Thelastguardian]

Originally Posted by mantidor

if you enter a company "usually" it means for life, while here people have to jump from job to job frequently,

Boy oh boy you have no idea . While this may be true 20 years ago, the Japanese has now mostly adapted a policy of "If you can't work well to save your life, get out of my compay".

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by mememe

Ok i'm not going to take my exams that seriously! But don't they know they could probably get degrees and jobs in other countries? What's the point of killing yourself over a stupid piece of paper when u can just use different ways to get into uni or job that u want!

Easy enough if Japanese was a major language spoken in other parts of the world. Truth is, many parents do send their children to foreign schools when they fail all their university exams. It's kind of like a "back-up plan."

So let's say an 18 year old who has lived in Japan all his entire life, horrible English even through six years shitty English that they teach here in our schools, decides to go to America since he couldn't get into a university here in Japan.

Get a visa from the American embassy, an I-20 from the school, etc. etc.
Costs shit load of money

The plane ticket
Costs a little bit of money

Tuition for foreign students
Costs heavy load of money

Place to live
Costs a doozy every month

Man, I've used up all my money...I'd better work since I need the cash...
Oops. Sorry - you're here in America to study. You can't work.

Hence - leech off your parents to wire you money every so often
Mommy and Daddy works hard to wire their child the money "to maintain their image" among the neighborhood and co-workers that "our child is studying diligently in America

Reality:
Heck, I don't have to work (it's not my fault - America doesn't allow foreign students to work), my parents send me money, and I'm taking this easy ass class in some stupid community college
Kid wanders around in America for another eight years in "never-ending ESL" class, leeching off his parents' money

By the time he's twenty eight, his parents are fed up with sending him money, and his visa expires so he goes back to Japan.

He comes back to find that no one hires him because he did nothing - has no experience - and has no education. All he can get is some cheap ass labor that pays less than 1500 yen per hour as a late-night convenience store worker. Gets into a bad habit of snorting liquid illegal substances and magic mushrooms, constantly in schizo-mode...

Finally decides to take his own life by gassing himself to death with carbon monoxide poisoning.



True story.

[puzk]

Just heard today that a group suicide occured in Japan... and they said they even meet online to find like-minded depressed ppl on the net and do a group suicide...


There is more to life than studying and getting into college.

[kj1980]

Originally Posted by puzk

Just heard today that a group suicide occured in Japan... and they said they even meet online to find like-minded depressed ppl on the net and do a group suicide...


There is more to life than studying and getting into college.

Yes there is.

However, there is notion in this thread that is misleading:

Only a small fraction (very tiny, in fact) of suicides occur because of studying nowadays. Heck, children today could care less if they do poorly at school - it's pretty scary how things are becoming more and more like America. Having a good education is becoming disillusional since most families are middle-class with a stable source of income...if you don't get into a good school, who gives a damn - their parents provide the money anyway. More and more, so-called "leechers" who take their parent's hard-earned money for granted are increasing.

Rather, most of student-related suicides are more likely to be caused by "ijime" (bullying). Just the other day, I heard that two schoolgirls who were victims of bullying committed suicide by jumping off a ten-story apartment building not so far from here.

The majority of adult suicides for the past decade are mostly related to:

A. being laid off
B. taking the easy way out when all the blame gets placed on you (i.e.: you were the head in charge for authorizing your company to illegally dump carcinogenic dioxin chemicals in a protected environmental reserve, etc.)
C. disillusionment of the society
D. owing excessive debts that you cannot pay off (filing for bankruptcy practically means you are done for the rest of your life in Japan. So, rather than filing bankruptcy, you take the easy way out)


All these are malaise that the government has a major headache with.



To tell you the truth, I actually do consider committing suicide myself with all the crap I have to endure at work everyday. Add that with the thought that I have to do this for the next forty+ years until my retirement, it is pretty depressing. And what do I get after I retire? A worthless social security that would probably won't be enough to live on.

Sigh... well, I still cling on to life with the hopeless dream that I will find a nice American girl so that I can get rid of this shitty job and start a new in a different country than where I grew up in.

[ramune]

"If you have the courage to die, why not continue living and face the problems?"

I know it sounds cheesy but it's true.

kj1980 has told us the hard cold facts about Japanese society, that it is not as perfect as we think it is, and yet a lot of us dream to live in Japan...

[u&t]

Originally Posted by ramune

"If you have the courage to die, why not continue living and face the problems?"

I know it sounds cheesy but it's true.

kj1980 has told us the hard cold facts about Japanese society, that it is not as perfect as we think it is, and yet a lot of us dream to live in Japan...

Surprised that being a wage slave in a metropolitan area sometimes suck? It doesn't matter where you live.

These discussions about suicides in japan pop up on animesuki every once in a while . Suicide rates there has actually gone down the last few years. This quote is actually quite intersting:

Originally Posted by kj1980

The majority of adult suicides for the past decade are mostly related to:

A. being laid off
B. taking the easy way out when all the blame gets placed on you (i.e.: you were the head in charge for authorizing your company to illegally dump carcinogenic dioxin chemicals in a protected environmental reserve, etc.)
C. disillusionment of the society
D. owing excessive debts that you cannot pay off (filing for bankruptcy practically means you are done for the rest of your life in Japan. So, rather than filing bankruptcy, you take the easy way out)

Over here public health organisations just issue blanked statements like "90 % of all suicides are related to mental illness" and that seems to be the general consencus as well. You don't do yourself in unless you're really, really depressed.

Did some googling on depression and japan. Quite interesting. It seems SSRIs (prozac) werent genarally prescribed at all before 1999. kj1980 knows more about this I guess but a google search for kokoro no kaze renders a few interesting links. Enough rambling for now...

.

[mememe]

kj1980 everything thing cost a lot of money even uni, but there is no reason to take the easy way out unless u don't see the different paths you can take, and I'm sure there are alot of American and Australian students who take their parents money for granted too.

Rather, most of student-related suicides are more likely to be caused by "ijime" (bullying).

Yeah I heard that bullying was bad over in Japan, plus it's kind of alluded to in movies that come out of there.

[Inuzuka]

Originally Posted by kj1980

He comes back to find that no one hires him because he did nothing - has no experience - and has no education. All he can get is some cheap ass labor that pays less than 1500 yen per hour as a late-night convenience store worker. Gets into a bad habit of snorting liquid illegal substances and magic mushrooms, constantly in schizo-mode...

Finally decides to take his own life by gassing himself to death with carbon monoxide poisoning.



True story.

"You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow. Cuz opportunity comes once in a lifetime"- Eminem

Or rather, you only get on chance to live this moment, so don't screw it.

[Newprimus]

I think it's easy for us to say stuff like that to try to encourage kj and Japanese people as a whole, but we're Americans, they're Japanese.

We know nothing about what it's like to be a Japanese person living in the islands. We're thousands of miles from taking a step in their shoes. So this is just me but I think it's a little pretentious of us to spout words of encouragement as if we were reading from a script when we really have no clue what it feels like to actually be in their positions.

Just a thought from here.

[Inuzuka]

Originally Posted by Shinova

I think it's easy for us to say stuff like that to try to encourage kj and Japanese people as a whole, but we're Americans, they're Japanese.

We know nothing about what it's like to be a Japanese person living in the islands. We're thousands of miles from taking a step in their shoes. So this is just me but I think it's a little pretentious of us to spout words of encouragement as if we were reading from a script when we really have no clue what it feels like to actually be in their positions.

Just a thought from here.

If you were refering to me them...i'm not American
But yeah, ultimately i know what you mean. And thanks to you, i now realise how insensitive my post was, so to everyone who was destined for unfortunate circumstances and was insensitively insulted by me, i'm sorry.

[mememe]

Originally posted by Shinova
I think it's easy for us to say stuff like that to try to encourage kj and Japanese people as a whole, but we're Americans, they're Japanese.

Isn't it a little pretentious to believe that we are either Japanese or American?

Also would u rather me say yes they should go kill themselves rather then me encouraging them that there are different ways to live your life and to get what you want and I would say the same to my own people and country what I am saying to ppl on the net and may i also add that suicide kind of happens around the world so.......maybe not consciously we are talking about our own.

[7thMethuselah]

Originally Posted by kj1980

Once you've seen people committing suicide by jumping into an oncoming train off the train station right in front of you several times, nothing is shocking.

I know exactly what that means, one of my closest friends commited suicide by jumping in front of a train 4 months ago. I saw the body afterwards, NOT a pretty sight. She killed herself over relational problems coupled with study problems, problems which became bigger and bigger because everyone was putting major pressure on her.

The fact is that in our country, the suicide rates amongst young people have risen dramatically, the reasons are quite simple : stress, our society has become one where you have to constantly achieve stuff, you always have to do more in less time and of better quality, every day people are constantly putting pressure on you, pressure to get a college degree, insane pressure at work, pressure to be better than the guy next to you.

Originally Posted by kj1980

To tell you the truth, I actually do consider committing suicide myself with all the crap I have to endure at work everyday. Add that with the thought that I have to do this for the next forty+ years until my retirement, it is pretty depressing. And what do I get after I retire? A worthless social security that would probably won't be enough to live on.

Sigh... well, I still cling on to life with the hopeless dream that I will find a nice American girl so that I can get rid of this shitty job and start a new in a different country than where I grew up in.

Yeah, join the club, you aren't the only one out there stuck into a damn shitty job. I had those kinda thoughts too (except for the american girl that is). Now I decided to try and make as much money as I can as fast as possible so that I can get into a part-time job. Working only one week out of two is something I can live with, at least that way there will be the opportunity to invest time into the things that truly interest me. So far the "plan" is going fine. The thought that I am working on a way out keeps me going ...

[Newprimus]

Originally Posted by mememe

Isn't it a little pretentious to believe that we are either Japanese or American?

I was generalizing.

Okay, how bout Americans, Europeans, other Asians, South Africans, Africans in general (maybe), South Americans, Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and other people near Australia, you get the idea.

Also would u rather me say yes they should go kill themselves rather then me encouraging them that there are different ways to live your life and to get what you want and I would say the same to my own people and country what I am saying to ppl on the net and may i also add that suicide kind of happens around the world so.......maybe not consciously we are talking about our own.

I never said you should tell them to go kill themselves. Kinda taking a huge leap there, no?