Internet-Aided
Suicide Pacts on Rise in Japan
PC World
February 12, 2006
ISPs help police locate those who email and instant-message about
killing themselves; government is considering banning sites that
discuss suicide
LONDON
An increasing number of Japanese are killing themselves in suicide
pacts made over the Internet, and service providers are struggling to
develop ways to deal with the problem, according to recent press
reports.
The Tokyo-based Mainichi daily newspaper reported that 91 people
committed suicide in 34 Internet-related incidents across Japan last
year, but police managed to prevent several potential victims from
killing themselves by cooperating with Internet service providers
(ISPs).
Major ISPs and the police last year drew up guidelines calling for
disclosure of the names and addresses of people who posted Internet
messages saying they were contemplating suicide, according to the
English-language paper Yomiuri Shimbun, based in Tokyo.
Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and the pacts
appear to appeal to people who are afraid to die alone, Yumiko Misaki,
director of the suicide counseling service Tokyo Inochi no Denwa (Phone
of Life), told the Reuters news agency. "They reach each other through
the Internet and make arrangements, Misaki said, "and the worst thing
is that people are often very influenced by reporting on this, so it's
likely to keep on increasing."
The issue sparked an ethical debate after Japanese authorities not only
began intervening in suicides on the basis of information provide by
ISPs, but also started considering banning the topic from websites.
According to the BBC, suicide is a widely discussed subject on the
Internet and there is even a popular website discussing the best places
to commit the act.
According to a report from the IDG News Service and PC World magazine,
there are fewer cultural restrictions on suicide in Japan than in most
other nations, and Japan's recent recession and resulting corporate
upheavals have devastated many middle-aged men, who previously enjoyed
lifetime job security but now find themselves out of work for the first
time in their lives and unable to find new jobs.