Suicide Club

Suicide Club

I know I'm always harping on about how good this film is, but after reading the following news story I've been left a bit surprised that the film had some truth in it...


NINE young men and women were found dead in two parked vehicles yesterday, in what police believe may be Japan's largest group suicide.
The incident may be the latest in a spate of suicide pacts that has left dozens of Japanese citizens dead in recent years. Many involved people from distant parts of the country who met through the internet, prompting calls for the government to shut down online suicide message boards.
Police said seven of the dead – four men and three women, including several teenagers and a 33-year-old mother — were found slumped in the seats of a rented van in Saitama district, north-west of Tokyo.
A National Police Agency official, who requested anonymity, said seven was the largest number of people known to have committed suicide together in Japan. The other two, both women, were found dead in a rented car at a temple in Yokosuka, about 60 miles south-west of Tokyo.
Police said the two cases had striking similarities. Evidence of a failed joint suicide attempt on October 4 by two of the women, one from each vehicle, had led investigators to believe the group suicides had been planned together, officers told the Japanese media.
Suicide pacts have been made online since at least the late nineties, and have been reported across the world from Guam to the Netherlands.
However especially large numbers have occurred in Japan, where suicide rates are among the world's highest.
More than 32,000 Japanese people took their own lives last year, a record figure. From January 2003 to June this year, 45 people committed suicide in groups after meeting online, the National Police Agency said.
Suicide websites post disclaimers about their content, which includes death wishes and exchanges on suicide methods. Some Japanese language sites list materials for self-asphyxiation, or sell kits.
Officers found the van yesterday in a deserted mountain area after a friend of one of the seven received an e-mail hinting at suicide and called police, who failed to reach the site in time, a Saitama state police spokesman said.
A woman was sat in the van's driver's seat, with the other six behind in two rows. Windows were sealed with vinyl tape from the inside, and four charcoal stoves were on the floor.
Police found several suicide notes but no external wounds or signs of a struggle, and investigators believe the seven poisoned themselves by inhaling carbon monoxide from the burning stoves. The spokesman said most of the dead were teenagers or in their 20s while one was a housewife aged 33.
The two women found dead together in the car also had charcoal stoves at their feet. The windows were sealed with a black plastic tarpaulin.
Japan's government has blamed a decade-long economic slump for a rise in suicides, especially among middle-aged men. Younger people have said that bullying, romantic break-ups or abusive family members made them want to kill themselves.
Experts were divided over the causes of group suicides.
Takashi Tomita, a psychology professor at Komazawa Women's University in Tokyo, said the internet had become a convenient meeting place for many Japanese concerned about the future and seeking comfort from others. "On the 'net, they can share their worries," he said. "For them, death is attractive — it's a certainty in a world of uncertainty."
Others cited a lack of suicide prevention and education, and the inability of some young people to distinguish virtual reality from reality.
"Young people today don't have a sense of reality about death," said Shinji Shimizu, professor at Nara Women's University. "They are approaching it as an extension of a game in cyberworld."

ive never heard of suicide message boards mind, bet users dont get to gain many posts on there

never heard of the film...is it good then??

at first i thought u were going to ask people to join u in a suicide club!

glad to hear your not planning on ending your life tho altho i was going to encourage you if you were planning on jumping off the tyne bridge!

The film is belter (it's japanese by the way ), but now it's seeming a wee bit disturbing to me...

I've already jumped off the tyne bridge!

well, absailed off of it. But it was mint, I was bricking it

@ Paul -

I thought this wud be about the Promise board suicide club.

Who's in that? Scruf?

hmmm..........mite try to watch it!

he's a reformed lad with a nu bird on the scene!

Groovy - but don't try eating during the first five minutes

He's left. Im still leader tho.

So he has got a cold then?! I thought he was just wanking a lot...

leave tom alone

bless his cotton ones

Don't do it Lee. Not until I can set up a webcast anyways... Betcha the Japanese would love to see pay-per-view suicides

S'alright, I'll make it up to him. I have a present for him...

heh heh heh he ha ha ha HA HA HAHA HA HA HA!!!

apparantly he doesnt.... :spangled:

Doesn't have a cold or doesn't wank a lot?

Either way Tom's ejecting mucus. :sick:

cold...

wudnt know about the other thing...

they're very big on education in Japan....even recreational activites have an educational purpose or they don't do it!

don't do it at rush hour... traffic over the bridge is bad enough without some goth trying to end it all