Nine people have been found dead in two suspected group suicides in Japan this week, despite efforts to stem an alarming rise in death pacts by people meeting over the internet.
Police discovered the bodies of five men and a woman — all in their 20s — in a van in a forest in Chichibu, 80km north-west of Tokyo, on Friday.
They had apparently died from carbon-monoxide poisoning, the preferred method of internet suicide victims. Three charcoal burners were found smouldering in the vehicle. On Friday night, officers were trying to identify the six, and believed they had arranged to die together after meeting via an online chat room for people contemplating suicide.
The bodies of two men and a woman in their 20s and 30s were found in similar circumstances in Aomori prefecture in northern Japan on Wednesday. The three had reportedly hatched plans to die together after meeting in hospital.
A record 91 Japanese died in 34 ”cybercides” in 2005, according to police — up from 55 people a year earlier. The annual number has almost tripled since records began in 2003.
Despite the increase, authorities claim to have prevented several group suicides under new regulations that require website operators to pass on the contact details of people believed to be at risk.
Internet suicides have occurred in several countries, including Britain, The Netherlands and South Korea, but the incidence has grown rapidly in Japan, which has one of the world’s highest overall suicide rates. In 2004, more than 32 000 Japanese killed themselves.
News of the latest cases came as the Japanese defence agency said a record number of troops had killed themselves last year — some of them after tours of duty in Iraq, Japan’s biggest military deployment since World War II.
The agency said 94 military personnel had committed suicide in the 12 months to March 31 2005 — up from 75 the previous year. At 37 suicides per 100 000 people, the death rate in the military is well above the national average of 24 per 100 000.
Three of the soldiers killed themselves after returning from southern Iraq, where 2 400 Japanese troops have taken part in a humanitarian mission since early 2004. ”It isn’t clear whether the suicides were connected to their mission in Iraq,” a defence spokesperson told the Kyodo news agency.
The Japanese government has sent psychiatric experts to Iraq to counsel soldiers worried about being targeted in terrorist attacks. Counselling is also available to those who have returned home.
Suicide pacts may be as old as civilisation itself, but the use of the internet as a macabre matchmaker has sent the incidence soaring in recent years. Cases have been reported all over the world, including in Britain last September when two strangers killed themselves in a car park after meeting via a suicide chat room.
Most instances have happened in Japan. Groups usually number between two and four people in their 20s or 30s. Suicide counsellors say chat rooms embolden the suicidal by providing strength in numbers, practical tips and a dangerous ”group think” that can reinforce a sense of hopelessness.
Some websites have been closed down by their internet service providers, but suicide chat rooms are never more than a simple internet search away. One typical submission to a website on Friday asked: ”Anybody there? I need some help. How can I kill myself tonight without any pain?” — Guardian Unlimited Â