JAPAN: Government takes action to reduce suicides
Updated
It's believed at least ninety people a day kill themselves every day in Japan. Now the country's high suicide rate is the subject of a government white paper to change the way suicide is viewed and treated in Japan.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speakers: Dr Wendy Jones-Nakanishi, English professor at Shikoku Gakuin University
JONES-NAKANISHI: Well something that I have found is I've lived in Japan for about 23 years and when I wrote a paper about suicide for the electronic journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies, I asked some Japanese people about suicide and what amazed me was nearly everyone knew someone who had killed himself and many of them said that these deaths were officially reported as resulting from illness or natural causes. So I think that the number is actually higher than the official estimate and I think that in Japan its such a shameful issue that they've tried to sweep it under the carpet.
SEN LAM: Do you think part of the problem might have to do with personal relationships as well, that people don't talk to each other about intimate issues?
JONES-NAKANISHI: Well, yes. People here always want to put on the best face in their relationships with other people and even in the family, people don't speak as frankly as perhaps we do in western countries.
SEN LAM: Well western values and the Christian faith ofcourse sees suicide as wrong, but does Japanese tradition take a different approach do you think?
JONES-NAKANISHI: Oh very much so. Because of its historic significance, you know that because of the code of bushedo life is not valued so highly and death in the service of honor or to protect one's family is seen as very honorable thing to do, which is quite unfortunate actually.
SEN LAM: You mentioned this approach to the value of life and we've certainly -well I've read the stories of the samurais cutting down villages, just to test the sharpness of their swords, is that kind of Japanese approach - that approach to the value of life, is that still persistent in contemporary Japan?
JONES-NAKANISHI: Well I think so. I mean it's a very complex issue but I think yes, that the individual life doesn't hold significance for Japanese in general. I mean its reflected in all areas of life, for example people's wish for privacy or the needs of the family above the needs of the workplace, all those things which in the west are taken for granted, in Japan those are still quite new concepts.
SEN LAM: You mentioned the workplace, is part of the problem, the fact that people are working longer hours in modern Japan as elsewhere and therefore there's really not much time to form personal relationships?
JONES-NAKANISHI: Yes and I'm sure that that is part of it. Now something interesting is that in the past the Japanese Government had tried to make a relationship between unemployment and suicide. In fact you know now Japan's economy is experiencing its longest run of expansion since the 2nd World War, but in recent years the suicide rate is going up. I am sure though that this emphasis on needing to devote yourself to the company and well yes and the disregard for the family and for personal needs, I'm sure that plays a part in this phenomenon.
