| |
Japanese youth challenge suicide taboo
By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO
- When Chiako Matsumura's father killed himself, her
family instructed her not to tell anyone the truth about
his death. "My relatives told me to tell everyone my
father had died in a car accident," she wrote in an
essay published when she turned 21 and which appeared
last month in a book relating similar stories about
parental suicide.
She had kept the secret hidden
for almost seven years, a period she describes as
painful. In truth, Chiako was as much a victim of
Japan's decade-long recession as was her father, one of
thousands who killed themselves because they were deep
in debt or had lost their jobs.
These factors
have in fact been pushing up the number of suicides in
Japan in recent years. The rising rates of suicides, in
fact, is matched only by the climbing unemployment rate,
which stands at 5.4 percent - 11.2 percent of them
middle-aged men.
But apart from facing the loss
of their parents, Japanese youngsters have to deal the
shame attached to suicide - which many cannot talk about
openly.
"These children face a double blow when
their fathers die," says Yukichi Okazaki, spokesman for
Ashinaga, a non-profit organization set up in 1988 to
support children of parents who have committed suicide.
"They have to deal with their mental trauma - and are
forced to hide it - as well as financial hardship, as
their fathers were the only breadwinners in the family,"
says Okazaki. Ashinaga counsels more than 4,000 such
children and provides them with financial and mental
support. Scholarships are extended to high-school and
university students.
"Speaking about suicide is
a social taboo in Japan. People tend to hide a family
suicide because they feel ashamed about it," says
Okazaki.
Still, the popularity of a collection
of essays by children who lost their parents to suicide
is a sign that society may slowly be facing up to the
issue. The booklet I Couldn't Admit It Was
Suicide, released in October, was written by the
children and wives of men who have committed suicide.
According to researchers, 100,000 children lost
a parent to suicide last year. Surveys also indicate
that on average about 27 children lose a parent to
suicide every day - a rate 8.5 times as high as in 2001.
Social experts say Japanese males are the most
vulnerable to suicide in a culture where they are
expected to take financial responsibility for their
families and not show emotion, even when they are having
huge problems.
"Acute changes after the economic
recession has put enormous pressure on middle-aged men
who can no longer be assured of their jobs ... the
situation is grave," says Yukio Saito, head of Inochi no
Denwa, a telephone hotline set up by the East Japan
Railway Co. The company operates the Chuo Line,
notorious as one of the areas in the capital where many
have committed suicide. Saito says, "These men cannot
talk openly about their faults even to their families."
Experts point out that the cold response by
corporations to the problems and uncertain future faced
by their staff, who often have devoted most of their
adult lives to the company, makes the situation worse.
East Japan Railway Co, which has erected small
shrines on some of its train platforms for people who
have jumped off platforms to their death, started its
help hotline two years ago.
"Japan has a
tendency to put a lid on dark issues," says Saito. It
does not help, he adds, that there if often a lack of
support from the family and the neighborhood.
Take the story of Kazuhiro Yamaguchi, who was 13
years old when he found his father dead in a car. The
elder Yamaguchi had committed suicide by letting carbon
monoxide from his car engine fill his vehicle.
"I still feel I could have done something to
save him. I have terrible bouts of guilt," says the
university student.
Peer counseling under a
program by Ashinaga helped Yamazaki deal with his
suffering. Hundreds of youth attend the summer camps he
went to, and there they gather with similar victims,
finding solace in the sharing of their stories.
"I couldn't stop my tears when I recalled the
suicide of my father with my other friends. For the
first time, I could cry openly and share my pain," says
Matsumura.
According to Okazaki, subsidies from
the government for the fatherless families are piecemeal
and mothers work two or three jobs to make ends meet.
"If the father was employed in a big company,
there could be a pension. But small companies do not
offer any financial help, which means there is a growing
underlayer of poverty even in a rich country like
Japan," he explains.
Recently some large
companies have begun offering mental-health counseling
to their employees to help them deal with stress, but
the programs are not well patronized.
"The most
pressing concern in Japan is to encourage people to talk
openly about their pain. Counseling is not catching up
because of the stigma against it," says Okakazi. Still,
he adds: "There is deep concern among ordinary people
for the sadness of the survivors. With the ongoing
recession, there is growing awareness of the risk of
suicide. We must get people to talk openly."
(Inter Press Service)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
