It is a common technique to stand on the tracks of a train or subway, sometimes the conductor doesn't see the person until its too late....otherwise anyone other than a cop that removes the "suicide" from the track has to "adopt" that person. Often a train will be at a complete standstill with the passengers swearing at the the suicide to move but having to wait for a cop to come along and do the service for all.
"Among economically advanced nations, a percentage of those receiving public assistance in Japan has been remarkably low (1.5% in 2003), due to a stingy public assistance policy. A municipal office asks the would-be applicant to make all possible effort to stay afloat before he applies for help. How much more effort would satisfy the municipal office is the question. Those below 65 years old are in reality hardly qualified to receive asssitance, despite of the fact that the Public Assistance Law doesn't stipulate the specific age regulation. Those on welfare are ripped off by their status, which makes public assistance demeaning. Public assistance is supposed to be one of fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Constitution, which states the following: "all people shall have the right to maintain the minimum standards of wholesome and cultured living. In all spheres of life, the State shall use its endeavors for the promotion and extension of social welfare and security, and of public health." Has this become a dead letter? If not, perhaps it was so from the beginning.
In light of an ongoing increase of suicide rate, although many things have been proposed regarding prevention, they are more or less fall under a mental health type of prevention policies. Launching a counseling system with hotline may work well for some people, but not those with serious financial problems. Mental health is not about policy but more about how the unemployment rate is to be curved and the social net to be placed rightly, so that a just society can be achieved. Preventing economically induced suicides with a tightening of the welfare budget is quite impossible. Jobs with livable wages for men and women with more generous public assistance might seem an indirect route, but is in fact the most secular way to prevent suicide.
It's always been arguable whether the actions of the Kamikaze and the act of Harakiri should be regarded as suicide, since they were more obligatory deaths. The same is perhaps true about the current suicide situation in Japan. Economic problems, disease, and pessimism, have played a part, for which a society is first and foremost responsible. There is an ever-widening gap separating those individuals who have hope and perspectives for the future from those who, simply, fall between the cracks."
