Caught in the Net
Wanted: suicide-pact volunteers. Method: carbon monoxide poisoning. Briquette coal, a stove, sleeping pills and a room available for sealing are already arranged. Women only. Commitment scheduled for January or February.
Such suicide bulletin boards are common for Japanese Internet surfers. Most simply move on and forget about them. But some find the message appealing, sign up and meet in person.
The Japanese public has been hearing more about such 'Net suicide pacts' in recent months as they hit the headlines with increasing frequency. Now, the trend has become a serious social issue. Since February, 18 people have tried to commit suicide in pacts with strangers; 14 succeeded.
Typically, they are in their 20s, and often jobless. In March, a man and two women - all in their 20s - were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in Mie prefecture, east of Osaka.
The man, the leader, was in a distressed state after causing a traffic accident two months earlier, and recruited partners online. They left a note saying: 'Dear all, we are sorry for making this selfish choice.'
Last month, two men, aged 30 and 54, were found dead in a car on a forest road in Saga prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu. The only apparent link between them was the fact that they had accessed suicide-pact sites on the Internet.
A growing number of young people in Japan, as elsewhere, find the only way to express their fears and troubles is through a computer. Meanwhile, the number of calls from teenagers and people in their 20s to suicide-prevention hotlines has dropped by nearly 50 per cent over the past 15 years.
Some people blame technology for the suicide-pact trend, but it is not certain that imposing restrictions on the Internet would prevent deaths.
If Japan's troubled youths are turning to the Net to find a sense of community and as a way out of their depression, then the solution would be to use it to provide ways to stop their slide.
