Police in Kotoura town, Tottori Prefecture, have arrested a 40-year-old woman on suspicion of helping a male acquaintance in his 40s commit suicide in 2022.
According to police, Kaori Sugimoto, a temp worker, has denied the allegation.
The incident occurred at around 8 p.m. on Sept 25, 2022. Police said Sugimoto is accused of helping the man hang himself outside a facility. A passerby heard Sugimoto scream for help and called 119.
The man was taken to hospital, but never regained consciousness and died in November 2022.
After his death, police analyzed security camera footage and found that Sugimoto was involved in the hanging.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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stormcrow
How could anyone encourage a physically healthy person to take their own life?
You encourage people like this to live and seek psychiatric help.
jeffy
stormcrow Today 08:38 am JST
It is an interesting question. Perhaps I can answer by beginning with another. How can an entire field, psychology, together with the full support of governments, actively encourage physically healthy people to remove functional body parts and take body altering drugs while simultaneously calling it “care”? Perhaps it is because the people involved perceive what they are doing as being compassionate, irrespective of how someone else might perceive it.
The man who committed suicide obviously had reasons that made sense to him to do so. Sugimoto likely perceived herself as acting compassionate in assisting him. I agree with you that he should have sought other help and not taken his life and that Sugimoto should not have aided in his suicide. Yet at the same time I recognize that suicide does not carry the same stigma in Japanese culture as it does in the West and so that our take on the situation may not be the most culturally sensitive. This may be why Sugimoto “helped” the man just as psychology and governments have “helped” many people. It comes down to perspective.
Keepitreal
There’s a lot more to this story..
リッチ
Sad for all involved. Mental health is so 3rd world in Japan and stigma associated is horrible. As someone who does therapy when needed and the openness of myself to share my experiences with others who might be in need. Throughout life, my experience has been lost people are amazed I would bring it up to possibly seek some mental health health when they are struggling. It doesn’t even come into their minds and some even get offended as education doesn’t allow for struggles.
Speed
If she helped him hang himself, then why did she scream for help while he was hanging?
Zaphod
stormcrow
Does the article say he was physically healthy?
jeffy
Speed Today 04:22 pm JST
Perhaps she needed more help? But the more serious and obvious answer is that she wanted to hide her own involvement.
iron man
I reckon some serious detail missing here. Any suicide is a hard one to call, any recent embarrassing embezzlement stuff, family stuff? let's leave the mental health escape route closed until more detail is known