The Month without Happiness

For many a reason, March is the month with the most suicides in Japan.

So Japan this year has put up all these depressing posters to bring awareness to it and reach out to people with numbers and urging neighbors and relatives to check on people.

The reasons are primarily due to the changing of the year. I don't mean the actual year, or the year of the emperor  I mean the fiscal year. April 1st is when all the kids level up in their schooling and go to their new schools or new classes. It is also when the working men get evaluated, laid off, and transferred. It causes a lot of stress to all parties involved. Say your wife still works in that city, but you got transferred 7 hours away. You have to leave your home and family just to satisfy having a job. And changing jobs is really out of the question. Japan isn't that progressed yet where you can change jobs on a whim. Normally you get a job out of college or high school and then you never change again, until you can retire. Kids might be moving with their dad leaving all their friends behind or perhaps they are going on to high school or college, but they just didn't get into their first choice and the stress and pressure of an undesired place, one where possibly none of your friends attend. Sometimes to these depressed minds, suicide seems like the better answer.
This is likely ingrained into their minds since the samurai, Edo period. Where suicide was a noble way to die when put in such a situation that called for it. I am talking about being captured by enemy forces, not changing schools. This process was called seppuku or harikiri where they take their own blade and cut open their stomach while a trusted man stood by to cut off their head when they were done. Yeah pretty twisted. So it is like their culture set their nasty predecessor that they all still feel like is ok. It isn't.

There was a scandal last year where an Otsu kid was forced into suicide by the punks and bullies of his school. That kid was just reported graduated by his school. An empty title. Bullying is very not ok. Don't let more people become like that kid. Prejudice against gays and the bullying and hate crimes that continue there and also very not ok. Don't stand around until it is too late. Reach out and be that persons happiness, be the friend that these people need. And to everyone feeling depressed, or if you know someone who might be, reach out. It has got to be the loneliest  scummiest feeling in the world to contemplate and go through with suicide. Alone in your apartment. Not checked on for days. And then think of the ones who find you. Scarred forever and always thinking what they should've could've done. And if you are in it for revenge, what revenge? you are dead, nothing, there is no more to your feelings, thoughts and emotions. Beat the system by becoming awesome, becoming happy. People you can't stand, cant stand you to be happy. So do just that.

Some of the most popular ways to die in Japan are jumping from tall buildings, hanging, pills, and possibly the worst, getting hit by a train. The last there is really expensive. There is really grand clean up fee as well as a late passenger fee because it holds up the trains for quite some time. I am talking like a hundred thousand or more dollar fee here. That your relatives and friends would have to pay. So if financial problems are the cause, probably not the best solution for everyone else involved in your life. So just don't do it. Don't do any of them. And promote awareness that you really just create a bigger mess for everyone involved in your life or not. That train conductor or apartment manager did nothing to you.
As far as places are concerned, I am sure many people are aware of the suicide cliffs and the suicide forest, there is actually a pretty interesting documentary on them you can find here for the people with morbid curiosity like myself.