Internet "suicide clubs" in Japan

[The Mad Hatter]

I read this here.

[begin quote]

"In Japan, the internet has been blamed for a spate of group suicides which appear to have been arranged in online chat rooms.

Andrew Harding talked to one young man searching for someone to die with.

Naoki Tachiwana opened his apartment door with a surprisingly warm smile, and beckoned us in to a neat living room. His computer was switched on - the screen facing out towards Naoki's eleventh floor balcony, and the night sky above Tokyo's eastern suburbs.

"Last night I was up all night," said Naoki, smiling again, "talking online to this woman who really - I mean really - wants to die. She asked me to do it with her today, but I said I couldn't because I had this television crew coming to see me. So she said we can do it after they've gone."

It had taken days of online research, emails and text messages to bring us here - face to face with a member of Japan's "internet suicide" community.


It is a growing, and morbidly frank underworld of chat rooms and websites with names like "Suicide Club," where thousands of (mainly young) people meet and talk and plan their deaths.

At least 26 people have died in this manner in the past two months.

The message boards are littered with personal ads like: "I have pills and charcoal briquettes - I'm looking for someone to die with," and "I'm 23 and want to die. I can travel anywhere."

I asked Naoki - a 34-year-old bank employee who has been off work with stress-related problems for six months - why he was considering joining a suicide group.

"Well, I'm depressed - and that's a disease," he said. "But to be honest, I think I've always been interested in killing myself." His enormous cat jumped down from a shelf and waddled over to the computer screen.

"I'd never thought about doing it in a group before," he continued. "But then I visited a website and thought - ah, if I join this I won't have to go through with it on my own. It's like crossing the road when the traffic light is red... it's not so scary when you're with others."


In recent months, dozens of Japanese have crossed that road together. In the last fortnight alone three groups of three people, and two groups of four have been found dead - usually gassed in cars on remote mountain roads.

Ama Terasu - not his real name - attempted suicide twice

Japan already has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and so far the internet-related deaths are only a small proportion. But it's a growing one.

"It's almost like a cult... these internet groups," argues Yukiko Nishihara, a Tokyo helpline worker. "When people are lonely and suicidal - but afraid of death - they find these websites which egg them on. There's an inhuman element to it."

But others see the sites very differently.

"There's nothing bad about suicide," said Wataru Tsurumi, author of a graphic, and best-selling handbook on the subject. "We have no religion or laws here in Japan telling us otherwise. As for group suicides - before the internet people would write letters, or make phone calls... it's always been part of our culture."

Ghoulish as many of the sites are - complete with skulls and dripping blood - many of their owners argue that they do more good than harm. Late one night in a crowded internet café in central Tokyo, we met up with a shy 24-year-old who wanted to be known by his online nickname - Ama Terasu.

"My site has a message board, and chat rooms and links to other sites," he told me. "It's a virtual world where you can talk about subjects you can't discuss in real life.


Japanese commuters reflected in platform mirrors
Mirrors have been installed on some Japanese train platforms to deter suicides

"There are some vicious sites which really encourage people to die, and when you get in a group there's a momentum which makes it hard to stop - people become irrational. But my site is not like that. I started it because I had tried twice to kill myself.

"I think it has saved my life - because it has enabled me to open up about things online. And I believe it can help others too."

Back in his small apartment, Naoki was still weighing up his options. He told me that he'd come close to killing himself the day before with another person, but that she'd pulled out at the last minute.

"This time," he said, "it's me who has got cold feet. I told the other woman who wanted to do it today that I was not ready to die so suddenly."

[end quote]

Very bizarre in my eyes, but perhaps it's seen differently in Japan.

[Austin]

It's like crossing the road when the traffic light is red... it's not so scary when you're with others.

No wonder the guy is stressed out.

[Toe]

It is a growing, and morbidly frank underworld of chat rooms and websites with names like "Suicide Club," where thousands of (mainly young) people meet and talk and plan their deaths.

Well if its growing then they obviously are not doing a very good job at killing themselves.

[GungHo]

It is a growing, and morbidly frank underworld of chat rooms and websites with names like "Suicide Club," where thousands of (mainly young) people meet and talk and plan their deaths.

Well if its growing then they obviously are not doing a very good job at killing themselves.

Hehe

[warning]

It is a growing, and morbidly frank underworld of chat rooms and websites with names like "Suicide Club," where thousands of (mainly young) people meet and talk and plan their deaths.

Well if its growing then they obviously are not doing a very good job at killing themselves.

Nice one.

I'm of two minds about this:

1) The counselor in me thinks this is a tragedy that could/should be averted. I hate to think of someone killing themselves.

2) The other side sees them as potential Darwin Award winners. I just hope, since most are young, that they haven't had the chance to breed yet.

[Sunderer]

How would you like to be the last guy in that chat room. No one to "go out" with. I bet THAT would be really depressing.

[dbt1949]

I'd like to give their number to one of my neighbors.

[Dirt]

Group suicides are on the rise in Japan.

[Jag]

How do you know if your friends are successful though?

I guess instead of a BRB or AFK, you can leave your IM account on RIP.

[JSHAW]

Damn that's a shame. All those SONY Wega's that don't have anybody watching them now.

[SuperHiro]

Does anyone remember that scene where a whole line of schoolgirls hold hands and jump in front of a train? Is that a scene from a movie (I'm thinking Ringu)?

IIRC, Japanese culture doesn't attach a social stigma to suicides, like we do here (Catholics don't like it, depressed people, etc. etc.). But organized suicides on this level is just... disturbing to say the least.

[Kelric]

Does anyone remember that scene where a whole line of schoolgirls hold hands and jump in front of a train? Is that a scene from a movie (I'm thinking Ringu)?

I've never seen the movie, but I know the scene. I think the name of the movie is 'Suicide Girls' or something like that.

[yossar]

2) The other side sees them as potential Darwin Award winners. I just hope, since most are young, that they haven't had the chance to breed yet.

Hell, then let's just start up a eugenics program and kill off anyone with any kind of serious mental problem. Or at least sterilize them. Trying to help them would just be too much effort.

A girl I knew (from Japan actually), who was one of the nicest girls you'd ever meet, cracked under the pressure of school and killed herself. It pisses me off that she would do something so selfish and hurt so many people that loved her. But of course I also feel really sorry for her, and think that if there had been someone around to support her somehow (she was living by herself in Hawaii away from her boyfriend in California) it definitely could have been prevented.

[warning]

2) The other side sees them as potential Darwin Award winners. I just hope, since most are young, that they haven't had the chance to breed yet.

Hell, then let's just start up a eugenics program and kill off anyone with any kind of serious mental problem. Or at least sterilize them. Trying to help them would just be too much effort.

I didn't say it was the nice side of me.

[Al]

The first rule of Suicide Club is that you don't talk about Suicide Club!