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gaijin4life · Posted: Fri May 18, 2007 6:13 am Post subject: ... suicide hit record

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Compensation cases for mental illness, suicide hit record

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070518a7.html

This I dont understand, - 2nd largest economy in the world and one of the highest suicide rates (work-related suicides at that..) among industrialised countries in the world.

- Do the two have to co-exist or is it simply a case of economic prosperity being considered more important than peoples` health and wellbeing ...

Your thoughts ...

Khyron · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 291 Location: Tokyo Metro City

It sure brings some truth to the thought of "money does not buy happiness."

Quibby84 · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 643 Location: Japan

I dont think that the two HAVE to exist and I sometimes dont think that it is the money. I think that it comes down to the fact that Japanese cant say no. If they have more work than they can do in 8 hours, then they stay longer. I work at a company and I had one guy who went to work at 7:30 am on Sunday and didnt go home until noon on Monday, no sleep and only a few sandwiches to eat. He was working on some machine and it wasn't working right AND he had a deadline. So maybe he did the right thing by staying but...that is a bit much. He also have 5 kids and has to work a lot to support them. I think that if he could afford to work less AND his job let him work less, then I think he would do it. But that is not going to happen so he works himself to death. And he is not the only case I have seen like this, some men work 7 days a week and some go overseas to America and then Europe in the matter of one week (do you think that is relaxing?). The head lady (although she does not consider herself the head lady and is not the boss) at my school works about 14 hours a day and sometimes 7 days a week. She is not doing this for money and I dont think she is getting much money, she is doing it because she will not tell the owner no. It is very sad and I see why some Japanese commit suicide.
I have never really worked with people in big business in America so I don't know if they are exactly the same, but I do know that Americans do not have as much of a submissive attitude as the Japanese. So Japanese do what they are told until they reach that breaking point. I am surprised that they aren't more suicides...sad sad sad....

gaijin4life · Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 5:41 am Post subject:

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Sat May 19, 2007 2:45 pm Post subject:

It may be one of the richest countries in the world, but it's not much fun if you're made redundant or you run up huge debts with loan companies.

chirp · Joined: 03 Dec 2005 Posts: 148

I would just like to add that I think a big part of it is historical. Suicide and the concept of "saving face" has been an important part of Japanese culture for centuries. In other developed nations (I am not saying I agree with the following), some might say suicide is the coward's way out. That it is more important to face up to your responsibilities.

No matter how long I stay here, I will never get over the fact that children in elementary school can already feel so much pressure that they take their own lives. What a horrific waste...

Khyron · Joined: 10 Mar 2006 Posts: 291 Location: Tokyo Metro City

cornishmuppet · Joined: 27 Mar 2004 Posts: 642 Location: Nagano, Japan

The English teachers in my current school were telling me last Thursday how they all stayed to 10pm the night before. The way they said it was almost as though they were boasting about it. The closing line was 'I think Mr Nishimura stayed the longest though, maybe to about 11.' One of the other teachers told me he stayed until 3am one night the other week. I have NO IDEA what they do with all this time. Whatever it is, I'm quite confident I could do whatever it is within the same amount of time, even if I needed to decode huge amounts of kanji to do so. It is my strong belief that they are very good at pushing paper around but not getting a lot done. In my opinion, its very, very sad. I'm quite happy to go home at 4. If they want to work themselves stupid, that's up to them, but the moment anyone tries to make me do it, I'm booking a flight home.

shuize · Joined: 04 Sep 2004 Posts: 1270

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Mon May 21, 2007 5:55 am Post subject:

southofreality · Joined: 12 Feb 2007 Posts: 579 Location: Tokyo

Japan doesn't have a unique set of factors that cause people to consider suicide. What allows them to actually carry out the act with such alarming frequency is the question. There's no one, single answer. Here's a slightly informative piece on the issue.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/07/world/main543167.shtml

bshabu · Joined: 03 Apr 2003 Posts: 200 Location: Kumagaya

Also, in Japan there aren't that many places one can go to seek help(shrink, priest,etc). I remember when I was working at a JHS here in Japan, there was one concellor for hundred of students and he came once a week at the most. Of course, there are home room teachers but I don't think they are qualified to handle it(IMHO).

Also, I always got the impression that it's the Japanese way not to bother someone else with your problems. Not as much as they can't say 'no'. Like furiousmilksheikali said a lot of suisides are financial. And others maybe do to some embarressment in thier lives. One case in point, a few years ago a famous director jump off a building and died because of an affair that was making headlines and he killed himself to spare his family the embarressment.

Big John Stud · Joined: 07 Oct 2004 Posts: 513

Khyron wrote:

It sure brings some truth to the thought of "money does not buy happiness."

How true! Money can only buy the things that make you happy!

furiousmilksheikali · Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 11:49 pm Post subject: