James Bateman wrote:
Richard Lawson Wrote:
In either event, suicide is a *VERY RARE EVENT*. Less than
1% of the deaths in the US are due to suicide. It's like
getting in a plane wreck - it may happen, but some extraordinary >
things have to occur.
Ahh. hrm. Gomen Nasai, Lawson-san, but if he is not telling
you that, then Zen will. Suicide is almost an epidemic in Japan -
certainly not one of the *major* killers, but far more prevalent
than it is here.
These are the figures I got. The number of people who kill themselves
per 100,000:
France, Belgium, Japan 15
New Zealand, USA, UK 10
So while yes, 50% more people kill themselves in Japan versus kill
themselves in the US, the numbers are still quite small.
I think there is a bit of a cultural misconception on our part on how
easily Japanese commit suicide. We may as well say the same thing about
the French, according to the above numbers.