The current worldwide recession is of course impacting Japan too, so unless the new administration initiates very proactive and well funded local and nationwide suicide prevention programs and other mental health care initiatives, including tackling the widespread problem of clinical depression suffered by so many of the general population, it is very difficult to foresee the previous government's stated target to reduce the suicide rate to around 23,000 by the year 2016 as being achievable. On the contrary the numbers, and the human suffering and the depression and misery that the people who become part of these numbers, have to endure may well stay at the current levels that have persistently been the case here for the last ten years. It could even get worse unless even more is done to prevent this terrible loss of life.

During these last ten years of these relentlessly high annual suicide rate numbers the English media seems in the main to have done little more than have someone goes through the files and do a story on the so-called suicide forest or internet suicide clubs and copycat suicides (whether cheap heating fuel like charcoal briquettes or even cheaper household cleaning chemicals) and mirrors at stations, and now lights at stations, without focusing on the bigger picture and need for effective action and solutions.

Economic hardship, bankruptcies and unemployment have been the main cause of suicide in Japan over the last 10 years, as the well detailed reports behind the suicide rate numbers that have been issued every year until now by the National Police Agency in Japan show only to clearly if any journalist is prepared to learn Japanese or get a bilingual researcher to do the research to get to the real heart of the tragic story of the long term and unnecessarily high suicide rate problem in Japan.

I would also like to suggest that as many Japanese people have very high reading skills in English that any articles dealing with suicide in Japan could usefully provide contact details for hotlines and support services for people who are depressed and feeling suicidal.

Useful telephone numbers and links for Japanese residents of Japan who speak Japanese and are feeling depressed or suicidal:
Inochi no Denwa (Lifeline Telephone Service)：

I would like to suggest that as many Japanese people have very high reading skills in English that any articles dealing with suicide in Japan could usefully provide contact details for hotlines and support services for people who are depressed and feeling suicidal.

Some useful telephone numbers and links for residents of Tokyo and Japan who speak Japanese and/or Engish and are feeling depressed or suicidal and need to get in touch with a mental health professional qualified in Japan:

Inochi no Denwa (Lifeline Telephone Service):
Japan: 0120-738-556
Tokyo: 3264 4343

AMDA International Medical Information Center:
http://amda-imic.com/

Tokyo Counseling Services:
http://tokyocounseling.com/english/
http://tokyocounseling.com/jp/

http://www.counselingjapan.com

poeple fail to save those they wish they could have all the time. you can't go back and change it. you can't go back and stop yourself if you egged them on or didnt realize it. time and time again, it's been proven that society as a whole are insensitive unless the situation is dead in their faces, even if they see it coming a mile away. attention or otherwise, that proves how many people will take soemthing from her suicide

I'm seriously hurt by this. You all don't understand how intelligent she was... she spoke English and was a fantastic artist. Her mind just ... she could not handle the world. She was depressed.

This world that we are experiencing right now... sometimes its too much for those that think above most. You all don't realize the situation you are all in... consciousness, being alive, competing for food and sex....lol

I'm so hurt by this. I need to go now, so that I may remain sane

How many of you have lost a friend? Rest in peace, sweety... if only I could have helped...

Don't blame me for not seeing the warning signs. Sometimes, people hide their despair.

If you know what I am talking about then try comparing the anime with this event.... apparently even if the setting is off (the anime's plot happened in Shibuya) it really disturbingly reminds me of that....

p.s. You are no eugenicist. A real eugenicist would prefer to have a lesser slave race made up of quick breading and mentally weak individuals to do the grunt work, at least until robots become smart enough.

p.p.s. The cookie monster in my computer ate all the e-cookies, so they'd have to be content with just "teh interwebs".

Oh and sorry to disappoint, but I'm not going to fall for such a simple troll.