Suicide pacts a grim and growing trend for Japan

this is the non-Darwin that my mom was talking about. 10 1/2 hours to go for the boards, and I'm typing crap... atleast copy-pasting crap...
whatever:
read this, you probably don't have a life if you are here anyway...


Suicide pacts a grim and growing trend for Japan
18 Feb 2005 05:21:48 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Elaine Lies

TOKYO, Feb 18 (Reuters) - "Everything's horrible, I want to die," read the message in the Japanese Internet chat room. "Who will die with me?"

In a grim new problem for officials tackling the nation's alarmingly high suicide rate, rising numbers of Japanese are dying each year in group suicides after meeting online at sites like this.

On Thursday, four people -- two in their 30s, a 22-year-old and a 19-year-old -- were found dead in a car by a riverbank in the northernmost island of Hokkaido, the latest of a series of group suicides over the past few months.

In February alone, at least 16 people have taken their lives this way.

As with the other cases, police found several charcoal stoves in the car, which had its windows sealed from inside. The three men and one woman, who had met through the Internet, died by inhaling carbon monoxide from the charcoal.

Group suicides make up just a small fraction of the over 30,000 Japanese who take their lives each year, but more involve pacts between strangers who got in touch via suicide web sites and that has experts worried.

"The idea of dying together is somehow reassuring," said Yukio Saito, who heads the "Inochi no Denwa" -- Phone of Life -- suicide hotline. "Dying alone is lonely and takes more courage.

"The way these suicides are carried out is very sensational for the media, and very suggestive for people who may be thinking of taking their lives."

actually this is a good idea. Those who die deserve to die...