Preliminary notes on suicide in Japan

These are just from reading the Wiki page.

About 3/4 of suicides are men. 1/4 are still by women and the page gives no explanation as to reasons. Reasons for male suicides are given.

There's a fascinating international comparative study to be done. The Japanese male suicides are commonly older rather than young men as they are in the UK. The Wiki page speaks of an acceptability or disinterest in Japanese culture. I think it's the latter rather than the former which may be over emphasised.

I reread The charge of the light brigade poem recently. It is beautifully reminiscent of the samurai. In fact the last scene of the film The Last Samurai resonates with...think its tennyson who wrote the poem. In both films foolish men ride on horseback into gunfire. Armed with sabres or samuri swords they ride to their death. I'm on the verge of tears when I think of our stupidity. But I cry for our bravery. The light brigade, the samurai and the highland charge are all examples of bravery, but a man on horseback riding into cannon and gunfire may as well be suicidal.

There's a post I did earlier about this. There are Japanese nuclear engineers who stayed behind to deal with the catastrophe. These men walked into radiation that will kill them painfully. The radiation they knew would ensure horrible ways to die. Worse than sepukku.

Shit. I love that bit about my kind. We start wars. We're violent. We're responsible for the majority of suicide as well as murder. We would also ride into the valley of the shadow of death with certain death as a prospect.

Ours is not to reason why. Ours is to do or die. This is the same cognitive constriction, in my opinion, as "death before dishonour." The earlier line is from the tennyson poem. The charge of the light brigade.

I'm wondering if I am learning about Japanese suicide or myself. I'm not death before dishonour. I've been there is a small way. I've lost everything and have nothing to lose. That's not what interests me though. It is living and dying for a cause which is more important than my pitiful, pathetic life.

So perhaps Japanese need my dogma of Make A Difference.