OKYO -- Glued to a computer screen in his north Tokyo apartment, the stocky, part-time sushi delivery man spent weeks searching the recesses of the Internet. Going simply by the handle "Murata," the 28-year-old surfed for online companions harboring his same dark interest: the desire to die.

He found what he was looking for on a host of new Japanese-language Web sites such as "Underground Suicide" and "Deadline." Promising to supply most of the materials, he made arrangements to kill himself with two anonymous Internet friends on a mid-May afternoon. Face to face for the first time, the three young men drove to a tranquil mountain pass six hours north of Tokyo. They shared sleeping pills, and then -- following detailed instructions posted on a Web site -- set charcoal alight inside their car and died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

The deaths of the three men marked only one incident in an extraordinary string of Internet suicides to hit Japan. Over the past six months, police investigators say at least 32 people -- mostly in their teens and twenties -- have killed themselves nationwide after meeting strangers online. Many more young Japanese have entered into online suicide pacts, but either failed in their attempts or backed out at the last minute.

Psychiatrists and suicide experts are linking the phenomenon to a profound national identity crisis during Japan's 13-year economic funk. Indeed, the Internet deaths come at a time when Japan is undergoing an alarming surge in its overall suicide rate -- with financial problems cited as the fastest growing reason for despair....

The majority of the 20 males and 12 females who killed themselves after linking up on these sites came from Japan's "lost generation" -- people in their teens and twenties who have come of age in a less secure, less confident society. Japan today is nation where unemployment and homelessness have soared, and companies -- long the pillars of society -- no longer offer workers the promise of a job for life. The new realties have put added stress on families, sending the divorce rate steadily higher.

Given the changes, experts say, many young adults in the world's second-largest economy have become dangerously cynical about their futures. "They are lost and confused. The long-held direction and goals of Japanese society are collapsing around them," said Rika Kayama, a Tokyo psychiatrist who has studied the Internet suicide phenomenon. "Japanese adults used to be able to say to their children that if you try very hard at school or at work, you'll see the rewards. But adults can no longer say that, because in many ways, it is no longer true."

That confusion has manifested itself in a number of new societal ills. As many as 1 million Japanese, mostly young men in their twenties, have withdrawn from society altogether, becoming "shut-ins" [Ed note: "hikikomori"] inside their parents' homes for six months to several years.

The news media are also decrying an increase in kireru, or the "snapping" of youths. Last month, several middle-class high school boys murdered a mutual friend after a minor disagreement. There seemed to be little real hate in the act -- the boys even stopped to share a refreshment with their friend before dealing him the killing blows....

--Anthony Faiola, "Internet Suicides Plague Japan: Young People Make Death Pacts With Strangers", The Washington Post, 24Aug03, p.A01.

or Japan's New Homeless, There's Disdain and Danger... a new kind of crime: attacks by young men and boys on middle-aged men who have become homeless after losing their jobs and who, in the cold logic of Japan's post-bubble-economy years, are useless.... "Those who have no role in society are now considered trash, just like stray cats or dogs, to be disposed of"... Mitsuyuki Maniwa, a professor specializing in juvenile crime at Otani University in Kyoto... said. More than 1,000 homeless people are believed to be living here in Kawasaki, an industrial city that has fallen on hard times. Many live in cardboard boxes near the main train station. In Fujimi Park, they have erected scores of wooden shacks, neatly spaced, with locks and, sometimes, ornamented windows and doors. As a sign of the suburban life many had led, some have transformed tiny patches of land into gardens. Many keep dogs and have bicycles. Others sit in lawn chairs in front of their shacks, reading novels. (Norimitsu Onishi, "For Japan's New Homeless, There's Disdain and Danger", NYT on the Web, 17Dec03)

 

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Beyond Hello Kitty   ven as this country of 127 million has lost its status as a global economic superpower and the national confidence has been sapped by a 13-year economic slump, Japan is reinventing itself -- this time as the coolest nation on Earth. Analysts are marveling at the breadth of a recent explosion in cultural exports, and many argue that the international embrace of Japan's pop culture, film, food, style and arts is second only to that of the United States. Business leaders and government officials are now referring to Japan's "gross national cool" as a new engine for economic growth and societal buoyancy.... Japan's culture of kawaii, or cute, epitomized by playful designs in ice cream colors such as cherry-blossom pink and tea green, is increasingly as recognizable around the world as Americana.... If you take a look at Shibuya, you see an energetic performance going on there, all the girls who want to be like dolls, like characters [in anime].... (Anthony Faoila, "Japan's Empire of Cool: Country's Culture Becomes Its Biggest Export", The Washington Post, 27Dec03, p.A01)

Float away

 

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This 21st-Century Japan, More Contented Than Driven   idehiko Sekizawa, executive director of the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living, conducts a comprehensive survey on attitudes toward life every two years. His findings show that people are focusing on enjoying life and are happy despite the long slump. There is strong nostalgia nowadays for the Edo Period, the feudal era preceding the last century and a half of rapid change. While the Edo Period had many social problems, people are now remembering it as a time of stability and great cultural vitality. "People want to return to an era where life was perceived to be more enjoyable," Mr. Sekizawa said. The feeling is noticeably strong among the young. If the icon of the 1980's was the "salaryman" who sacrificed his private life for his company, today's icon is the "freeter" -- the young Japanese who take odd jobs to make just enough money to enjoy their personal interests or choose their way of life. The stress of competing inside Japan, let alone as part of a country competing against a visibly, and to some, frighteningly, hungry China, is furthest from their minds. "Indeed, "soothing" is a key word nowadays. (Norimitsu Onishi, "This 21st-Century Japan, More Contented Than Driven", NYT, 04Feb04, p.A4)

 

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http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/sq/japalienation.html Copyright © 2003 Brad McCormick, Ed.D. bradmcc@cloud9.net 13 May 2006CE (2006-05-13 ISO 8601) v03.01

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	Traditional Japanese serenity.
In the Meiji period (1868-1912), Japanese were fascinated by modern Western life. Picture: 12-story technology exhibition tower: Ryounkaku, Toyko, ca. 1892, attracted many visitors. Float away, 2005