- This Japanese "suicide pact" news is being
disseminated far afield. I have tracked 171 stories in newspapers, just
in the last two hours; more via television broadcasts; watch for copycats
globally, per
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- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743482239/
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- BBC News
10-12-4
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- Seven bodies were found inside a van in the Saitama mountains
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- Japanese police have found the bodies of nine people
who apparently committed suicide after meeting via special suicide sites
on the internet.
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- A police spokesman said seven young people were found
in a van in the Saitama mountains to the west of Tokyo.
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- Minutes later, two women were found dead in a car south
of Tokyo, in another apparent suicide pact.
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- Japan has recently seen a wave of internet-linked suicides,
as people seek companions to die with.
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- More than 34,000 Japanese took their own lives in 2003,
according to the National Police Agency - an increase of more than 7% from
the previous year.
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- Economic difficulties and an increasing sense of isolation
among Japanese youth are believed to be contributing to the rise.
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- A small but growing number of suicide attempts are being
made by people brought together through the internet.
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- Analysts have speculated that group suicide may mitigate
the inherent loneliness of taking one's life alone.
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- The BBC's Tokyo correspondent says dozens of suicide
websites have appeared in recent years offering advice to those who plan
to kill themselves.
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- Poisoned
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- The three women and four men who died in Saitama were
all reportedly in their teens or early 20s.
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- It was probably the largest group suicide in Japan so
far, police said.
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- This group and the two women found in Kanagawa are believed
by police to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning as a result of charcoal
burners in their cars.
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- "We believe they all died after inhaling carbon
monoxide from the charcoal," a police spokesman said of the seven
found in Saitama. "We believe they got acquainted through the internet."
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- "We found no traces of violence that could have
otherwise led to their deaths," he said.
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- Investigators had yet to establish whether the two cases
were related.
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- Our correspondent says suicide has become a widely discussed
topic on many websites, and there is even a guidebook to the best places
to kill yourself.
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- The authorities have talked about closing down or regulating
the websites.
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- But organisers argue that they offer a compassionate
service to those who have given up all hope of the future.
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- Increasing numbers of young people in Japan are feeling
alienated by modern life. Several thousand are termed "hikikomori"
- recluses who never leave their room, finding entertainment only on the
internet.
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