Japanese battle bizarre trend of internet suicides

TOKYO - Young Japanese are joining group-suicide pacts in record numbers despite efforts to crack down on the bizarre internet-led phenomenon.
Police said that a record 91 people committed suicide together after meeting through the internet last year, up from 55 in 2004. The figure has tripled since the records began in 2003.

Most of the victims were in their teens, 20s and 30s and sought each other out on websites that allow the suicidal to swap emails and offer advice on the least painful ways to die.

Many opt for carbon monoxide poisoning in sealed vehicles, often in secluded or scenic areas, like four men who died while watching the sun rise at the foot of Mount Fuji. The men met for the first time just hours before.

The latest statistics will likely lead to more demands for internet monitoring and calls to ban the word "suicide" from search engines.

Internet providers already work with the police and there are signs the phenomenon may have peaked. But Yukio Saito, who runs Japan's largest telephone-helpline network, cautions against complacency. "People will always find a way to end their own lives if they want to. The wider issues must be tackled."

A suicide manual has sold more than a million copies and at 24.1 suicides per 100,000 people, Japan has the highest suicide rate in the developed world. Nearly 8000 people in their 20s and 30s killed themselves in 2003, making suicide one of the leading causes of death for young Japanese.

Many of these youngsters are drawn from the ranks of hikkikomori, linked to the outside world only through their computers, which they use to find like-minded people.

Dozens of young Japanese can be found every day discussing suicide online. A typical message reads: "If you are thinking about killing yourself, please reply." Another says: "I'm in my early 20s and I want to die easily. Can go anywhere in Japan."

One of the last acts of the suicidal is often to email a friend or relative. Several times in the past two years the police have found semi-asphyxiated people just in time, after messages were sent.

- INDEPENDENT