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Julian Ryall

The Defence Agency is looking into an alarming increase in suicides within the Self-Defence Forces, with the number of personnel taking their own lives jumping by one third in just three years.

But while the agency says it has 'no idea why there has been an increase' in suicides, others believe it is down to a culture of bullying within the ranks.

A court in Nagasaki supported the agency's position earlier this week, dismissing a demand for compensation from the parents of a member of the Maritime Self-Defence Force who hanged himself in 1999.

The 21-year-old petty officer 3rd class, whose name has not been made public, had complained of being bullied by senior officers before killing himself aboard the destroyer Sawagiri during manoeuvres off southern Japan in November 1999.

Ruling that the behaviour of his superiors did not constitute bullying, Judge Keiji Noda did  say their actions may have been 'inappropriate'.

'The Defence Agency does not believe there was bullying aboard the Sawagiri so this verdict is correct,' spokeswoman Midori Sasaki said. 'The court understood the position of the agency.

'Of course, we carried out an investigation of the case but we found no proof that there had been any bullying on the ship.'

According to the agency, there were 94 suicides among SDF members in the year to March 1, up from 75 cases last year and just 59 in the year to March 1, 2002.

'We have no idea why there has been an increase but we are investigating the causes of the suicides and we are introducing new measures to stop this problem, including counselling,' Ms Sasaki said.

But not everyone believes the agency is doing all it can to solve the problem.

'The SDF are filled with instances in which high-ranking personnel bully those below them,' Kantoku Teruya, a member of the Social Democratic Party of Japan, told Friday magazine.

'The structure of the organisation is based on tradition, but there is also a very high likelihood this structure is causing an increase in the number of new recruits and lower-ranking troops who are committing suicide,' said Mr Teruya, who was involved in the investigation into the suicide aboard the Sawagiri.

'We discovered that it is common practice for lower-ranking seamen to give their bank books to their commanding officers when they are at sea. What is even more surprising is that some of those officers treat those bank books as their own.'

In other cases, suicide notes left for family members have detailed SDF members being shot with a BB gun, punched and slapped and being forced to buy pornographic videos.

'The verdict in Nagasaki is very unfortunate,' Mr Teruya said. 'Bullying within the SDF is a very serious problem and while 94 people killed themselves last year, that number could rise again this year.'



Sharp rise  in military suicides has  top brass on  the back foot