I don’t plan on turning this into a daily Japanese suicide watch, but I did want to point out there was another one in the news. This story over at Japan Today tells all the grim details. It also happens to be related to bullying in school. I feel really bad for these kids.
If you didn’t already know, Japanese students spend crazy amounts of time at school. They are usually there from 7:45am to about 7pm on weekdays, and usually come in on the weekends for club activities as well. Imagine the toll this takes on students that are being bullied. It leaves them with no escape.
There is a lot of pressure in Japan on students to succeed. One sign of success is spending all of your time at school and never being absent. This actually plays a large role in determining which high school will take these students. Therefore, you can almost understand why some students feel suicide is the only way out from this situation.
One thing I think I will start doing is talking with my students more and seeing how they are feeling. I will keep it as subtle as possible, but if I can prevent just one suicide in Japan, it would be worth every second of me being. It breaks my heart every time this happens.
It’s quite depressing when you get to the point where the only people who can help you are people who have nothing directly related to what is going on.