Neil Duckett

An ever increasing topic in the news and blogs around Japan these days is suicide by inhaling Hydrogen Sulfide made from household detergent.

It seems everywhere i turn yet another suicide is reported with Hydrogen Sulfide being the cause or method used is probably more appropriate.

While i understand there may be many people out there in dire straits and they feel the only way out is to take their own life, the problem actually affects the wider community when they use Hydrogen Sulfide as the method - hence a greater uproar in the community.

While reading the Daily Mainichi today the headline “3 Japanese found dead in car; police suspect lethal gas made from detergent” caught my eye … only to see the “Related Articles” below it and see another 9 all relating to the same thing.

“Earlier this month a man killed himself by mixing detergent in his house on the northern island of Hokkaido, releasing toxic fumes that drove 350 neighbors from their homes”  reported the mainichi. The full article can be read here.

Suicide is a massive issue in Japan and the figures from The government said 32,155 people killed themselves in Japan in 2006, giving the country the world’s ninth highest suicide rate.

I had come across a campaign against suicide organised by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government here a couple of months ago which was specifically promoted on trains, the other most common method of suicide in Japan. Maybe they need to rejig this and target this new means to an end.

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I was out at Shibuya Crossing the other day and as usual i had my camera with me.

Just as well on this occasion, it was hard to miss the group of guys forming on the station side of the crossing, faces painted brown, with gold headwear on ready to do something interesting, so it seemed anyway.

They started with a march.

And then the arms got going too.

Arms overhead and doing lots of work now.

Then back to the marching.

The group was getting very excited and i could sense something big brewing.

Then the lights changed and they ran across the road, that was the last i saw them.

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Anyone that slept through last nights earthquake can sleep through anything. I on the other hand suffer insomnia at the best of times so a Magnitude 6.7 earthquake was enough to get me up and keep me up for the rest of the night.

Here’s the breakdown of last nights activity from the Japan Meteorological Agency.

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In a week where many people get away from Japan i’ve unfortunately stayed put and worked most days … the last 2 from home so not all bad. I’m off to Ireland at the end of the month so i needed to conserve the few holidays i have in preparation for that.

It’s been a pretty casual week though and i’ve managed to get out pretty well every night this week and also catch up on a few things i’ve needed to during the day.

Perusing the internet this morning i came across an interesting article re “The Foreign Ministry plans to give favorable treatment in visa applications and extensions to foreign nationals with a good command of the Japanese language.”  You can read more about it over at Japan Probe.

Essentially though there’ll be no unfavourable treatment to those with no Japanese language skills but for others who have endeavoured to learn they will include extending the resident status of foreigners with a certain level of Japanese language proficiency to a maximum of five years from the current three.

On a less serious note, i found this lunch special quite amusing, childish i know.

Image Source: Neta

I’m expecting the next few days to be pretty quiet for me, try and do the right thing and keep it pretty tidy and all things go according to plan, i aim to get out to Harajuku on Sunday for the next installment on the 29 stops of the JR Yamanote Line.

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