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Internet posting leads to group suicide in Kobe

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Four people were discovered dead at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday in a car stopped on a mountain road near Kobe, police said. Traces of hydrogen sulphide were detected inside the car, police said, adding they believe it was a group suicide.

On Monday, police had received a call from the operator of a mobile phone website saying that someone had posted on a message board that they were thinking of committing suicide. Police are investigating whether the four met on the website and plotted to kill themselves together.

The post included vague language hinting at suicide along with a request to meet at 10:30 a.m. on June 28 at JR Kakogawa Station. The post was made on June 25 and erased in the afternoon of June 28.

According to police, the four were a 29-year-old man from Kanazawa, a 50-year-old woman from Osaka Prefecture, a 22-year-old male university student from Hyogo's Amagasaki City, and a 19-year-old woman from Asago City. The car is believed to have belonged to the 19-year-old woman.

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If I ever decide to take the easy way out, I'd not want my last moments on earth to be spent in a concentrated stink bomb.

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I may be correct in saying that the people who sadly killed themselves did not want to live in a world where you can read "Suicide: Please do it at home" on a poster at an underground station or hear comments like "more space or me...good riddance". I believe a lot of people who try to commit suicide are uber-sensitive (not in a bad way) and cannot deal with the harshness of the society we live in. And frankly I`d rather live among the uber-sensitive than people with no moral understanding other than their own selfishness.

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So, who erased the post? Was someone just trying to see if they could make people commit suicide? Post the meeting place in vague language and wait for some people to meet at the station? Then, once they are together, they have "group support" and can more easily go through with it?

Sorry, I am just rambling on here but if someone were to do that, posting a comment like that, I wonder what the charges, if any, would be if caught by the police.

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Sad... This stuff scares me. Frankly I am concerned the Internet is the future of communication in this country. The Internet has been around for awhile.... but mixed with this culture its deadly. I hope & wish the country get help. Personal things, the GDP, unemployment and the desire to have the thumbs up has kicked this country in the ass. Japan's best move is to help the mentality of the public...the ones who need proper help-in the head with logic. I despise the shoganai spirit. Even though my company's business is outside- I want to help Japan realize- you must open up, share, care and beware...

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Sad stuff, but I hope these four people found some sort of comfort, maybe even a little happiness, that they didn't go off alone.

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I'd not want my last moments on earth to be spent in a concentrated stink bomb.

From what I read, it's the most painless way to go. It doesn't even smell bad after couple of seconds. Nothing is wrong with this, don't even feel sad for the people who did it. I think everyone should have the option of ending their life. Why not?

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According to police, the four were a 29-year-old man from Kanazawa, a 50-year-old woman from Osaka Prefecture, a 22-year-old male university student from Hyogo’s Amagasaki City, and a 19-year-old woman from Asago City. The car is believed to have belonged to the 19-year-old woman

. this **** blows my mind.

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At least it was not four individual jumpers on different train lines. I hate that when it happens. Some people are really selfish when doing themselves in, but these four were nice about it.

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Shame on all of your clever comments for making me laugh at the dead, but I believe that they have a right to do what they want with their lives--including ending their own. As long as they don't harm anybody else--or even better--say their "farewells" and make their own arrangements to dispose of the organic waste left behind, I don't see the harm (to other people or society). How can we judge them for trying to end their own physical, spiritual or possibly financial pain? Live and let die, I say.

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yeah... blows my mind is an understatement. How do four people decided to kill themselves together. Think about meeting each other for this first time. Did they get along? did they just meet up and say: yo, lets do this. and that was it. Did they stop for coffee. The coffee was so bad they still went through with it? 4 people got together to do this. Sounds like 4 friends. 4 reasons to live. The they watched Takeshi's Suicide Club too many times.

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What a bunch of losers

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Incredibly sad.... @carrington...i agree with you..though i have to say where i live, there are no signs or statments like the ones you mentioned, i would personally black them out or rip them down..how sad to promote or act as if suicide is ok..its not! @PeaceWarrior...good question..they met up at June 28th..at 10:30 am... and it was erased..in the afternoon of the 28th. ODD! @my2sense...I want to help Japan realize- you must open up, share, care and beware... agree... but I am from another country..what is shoganai spirit ??

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Hey, its Japanese culture since old ages. Its okay.

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no its not...

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I wonder if even one of them would have changed their mind had their been a toll free, nationwide, twenty four hour, suicide hotline staffed with professionals that would actually try to understand their problems rather they say "ganbarre."

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VelvetRosetta at 12:53 PM JST - 30th June

I want to help Japan realize- you must open up, share, care and beware... agree... but I am from another country..what is shoganai spirit ??

VelvetRosetta: "Shoganai" means "What can you do?" or in essence, "Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it so let's not even try to change anything"... a lot of foreigners in Japan complain about this reasoning because they see it as "an easy way out" or an excuse to not act on or say anything regarding an issue or event which defies "common sense".

As far as a Japanese perspective, I'm sure they (most Japanese) think that our Western ways are over-bearing, forceful, and overly-outspoken to the point of making things worse than they were originally.

I agree with a little of both sides... in the case of suicide, it is their own decision. Although they are hurting others they leave behind, life is not always like the movies where people can be talked out of suicide. With that said, when you consider people's lives are at stake, there's no harm in trying to convince somebody not to kill themselves, but in the end, it's not our decision... it's theirs.

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In some ways I can understand a depressed young person suddenly killing him or herself. But 19 and 22 going through this kind of detailed process is pretty sad.

So to anyone reading this who is considering suicide. I offer a reason to reconsider.

Death is a line that once crossed is an absolute. There is no return. No living human being can say with 100% certainty what lies on the other side of that line. You may think it is rest, oblivion or some happier place. But the bottom line is that we do not know 100% for certain. If the science side is right, then nothing waits for you there. You just stop existing. But if science is not entirely right (remember science thought the world was flat for hundreds of years), then perhaps something spiritual rests on the other side. If the Christians are right then you are screwed for having killed yourself and suffering is just starting. Other faiths maybe you are destined to spend the next life as a roach.

So with all these uncertain points, what makes a suicide person so sure that what ever comes next is better? Could very well be far, far worst.

So get help and find the courage to live. Death will come to you soon enough.

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please do not quote me and edit with your 2 cents on shoganai.

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Shoganai- means--- It cant be helped.

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I have been a depressed person most of my life, and i have contemplated suicide in the past..but thank goodness i was to chicken to go threw with it.. I dont believe it is the right thing to do, and I agree with tkoind..what if..it is worse on the other side..we never know for sure..

Besides...I really think suicide should be taken more seriously...

Example..I used to say I would take bottles of pills and lay on the bed so when my ex husband come home he would find me..in my mind I wanted him to feel guilty for the way he treated me,I was in a horrible situation with him but, if I had killed myself..I would not have the life I have right now..ppl dweLl in the now..what about tomorrow..in life we have ups and downs but ultimately it is up to us to make it better..maybe in that moment of dispair you are blinded and dont see that down the road there could be a way out and your life will change and at some point you just may be happy! This is why it is so important to have ppl you can go to and talk to.. @Tahoochi....thank you for explaining..and yes i know its not always like in the movies but instead of promoting this ppl should be making awareness of this and take action...not just sit back and croos arms and say..oh well...sad!!!

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VelvetRosetta. Your insight is really important.

I know someone who went through with what you considered. In her case everyone believed she had hoped he would find and rescue her before death. But due to work he was late and did not make it. She died. And his soul all but died with her.

One inescapable fact, no matter how dark one may see the world around them, a suicide can hurt people that maybe you don't realize will be harmed.

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Stop...the insanity!!!

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tkoind2...Thank you...I have been told I should write a book on my life seeing all I have been threw it seems to be unreal...just not sure who would be interested in my life to actually read it..lol But seriously...When one person commits suicide it kills more than themselves..true, a piece of someone else goes with them..mother, father, child..spouse.. Sad this woman you mentioned died and even more so to think she wanted to be saved...she must of been holding such deep pain inside...

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Thank you so much for not delaying my train.

RIP.

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These crazy, crazy people. They really need to get out into this wide world more. They'll soon realize that there are many ways of dealing with stressful circumstances. I mean... a 19 year old girl, a University student. Should be the best days of their lives....Come on. What the heck is going on there ? If anything, they should be getting together to talk each other OUT of committing suicide..

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@tokyonice...Well said..

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Traces of hydrogen sulphide were detected [...]

Now all we need is to get some advice on how to produce mentioned hydrogen sulphide and some more people can follow this example.

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Now all we need is to get some advice on how to produce mentioned hydrogen sulphide and some more people can follow this example.

It used to be online, so people wouldn't mix them by mistake- great play there. But all the info got taken down after that spate of suicides this way a few years ago. The odd thing is that you can still read about how to make them in the revision history in the Japanese version of wikipedia.

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People that kill themselves don't bother me so much. It's the stupidity of the action that bugs me, but all in all, I see it as an example of "natural selection" or "survival of the fittest". In my opinion, they deserve what they do and that type of person/personality really isn't useful to the rest of human kind anyway.

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I don't know which is sadder, the loss of all these people's lives (amongst the sea of suicides that are committed, worldwide) or some of the commentary by the genuises and paragons of evolution here. You display the very same coldness you are so critical of in Japanese society, talk about being inconvenienced on the way to work...etc. The hypocrisy is disgusting.

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"How do four people decided to kill themselves together."

I suspect it is a lot easier than deciding to do it alone. No mystery here. Four is probably easier than one. They were there to support each other as they inhaled the gas, I guess, and it works. Which leads me to say that, using that noxious gas, they were probably there EGGING each other on, don't you think?

Don't kill yourself people. Make yourself a slave to an idea or a person you love or become a superhero instead.

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Nobody here is perfect. Shoganai means 'there is no way of doing'.. that nothing can be done or there is no point in trying is implied by that. When VelvetRosetta said: "seeing all that I have been threw.." she used threw - meaning the past tense of having been thrown.. instead of through which means to pass into and then out of something.. moving through it. Suicide pacts are not so uncommon in Nihon.. and they are becoming more common all over the world. It is not an act that can simply be categorized as right or wrong, since what defines the act of suicide is different laws in different places and different religions have very different teaching about suicide. To Christians, suicide is usually perceived as being sin, since murder is a sin and you are murdering yourself. In Shinto, there is both honorable and dishonorable ways of committing jisatsu and there is even an accepted assistant, a kaishaku who may be expected to complete the act after the ritual goes beyond the suicidal person's ability to continue. Is it right or wrong to give up your life willingly to save the life of another? Doing so makes you a hero in most of the world. Is it right or wrong to give up your life willingly to escape the sickness and horror of where you are? Instead of simply shrugging ones shoulders and saying shoganai.. consider that may well have been EXACTLY the feeling that had taken root in the heart of each of those people.. that there really was no more that they could bear.. no more that could be done, no way of doing - no way of coping - no hope for their future in this life. What comes after is uncertain.. but it is not uncertainty that suicidal people fear.. it is what IS known, where they ARE, what they feel hopelessly trapped in.. that in the end they feel they can only escape by escaping from this life. Such death is never wanted by society.. never without pain for those who are left behind.. all death should feel that way. But do not cast judgment upon the act itself.. nobody is perfect.

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This is very gloomy.

Mikanojo: If you are giving up your life to save another, then it is not really suicide. Suicide in many cases is selfish and wrong because the person only thought about themselves and not about the people they left behind. I can only understand someone committing suicide in extreme dire circumstances; for example: horrible pain, debilitating illness, or perhaps severe poverty...cases where the circumstances are unbearable and permanent. Most things in life (some would argue everything) and temporary and will pass so whatever terrible things we go through there is usually hope, even if only a shred, that things will eventually get better.

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that's 'are temporary'

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Sorry to say but sometimes suicide is just in self-defence. RIP.

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Suicide is an option... we have to accept it. In this case I feel like shocked and amazed. Four people meet and decide their way... It's trully stuff for a (non happy-end) movie... Rest in peace!

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In some ways I can understand a depressed young person suddenly killing him or herself. But 19 and 22 going through this kind of detailed process is pretty sad.

So to anyone reading this who is considering suicide. I offer a reason to reconsider.

Death is a line that once crossed is an absolute. There is no return. No living human being can say with 100% certainty what lies on the other side of that line. You may think it is rest, oblivion or some happier place. But the bottom line is that we do not know 100% for certain. If the science side is right, then nothing waits for you there. You just stop existing. But if science is not entirely right (remember science thought the world was flat for hundreds of years), then perhaps something spiritual rests on the other side. If the Christians are right then you are screwed for having killed yourself and suffering is just starting. Other faiths maybe you are destined to spend the next life as a roach.

So with all these uncertain points, what makes a suicide person so sure that what ever comes next is better? Could very well be far, far worst.

So get help and find the courage to live. Death will come to you soon enough.

I see what you are saying but just to nitpick. Science didn't think the earth was flat. A lot of ignorant people thought it was flat. A number of old civilizations realized the earth wasn't flat. But what the uneducated masses believe is a different story. Just look at today's society for example. The uneducated masses still believe a lot of stuff that disagrees with science.

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i won't pass on judgment too easily. i don't know these people or the circumstances they were in.

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Suicide is nature's way of weeding out the weak-willed. Getting bullied? Fight back! If not physically, then at least through the appropriate authorities. That's what they're there for. Abusive spouse? See above. Terminal disease? Treatment could just be around the corner but the only sure thing is you're going to miss it if you kill yourself. I hold life dear and Death isn't taking me without a serious battle.

There's a great poem by Dylan Thomas on this subject. "DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT". The first stanza reads:

Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Suicides don't rage. They whimper.

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I went on several of the Japanese news sites that covered this story from the 28th until today and I did not see a single one that mentioned the post was erased in the afternoon of June 28th, after the death of the four people. Sorry to ask, really, but is there any way to get the actual news report from which this JT post was gathered from?

It just bugs me to no end that the post was erased after the people died. Nagging...

The post was made on June 25 and erased in the afternoon of June 28.

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Sorry, this part should be in quotes:

The post was made on June 25 and erased in the afternoon of June 28.

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I would wonder if any of these people were taking any anti-depression medicine. One side effect is thoughts of suicide. Toxicology would show if they had any in their system.

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This is a tragedy. I wonder why they feel the need to kill themselves together - can any psychologists on JT explain this? What a sad story. Rest in Peace to them all.

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Tragic. No words.

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I agree with not blaming or judging these people; but the society in which they lived needs savaging. The heavy group-orientation of Japanese society means that individual life and freedom are without value, as does the straitjacket of conformity in which everyone is conditioned to be restrained. Everything about Japan, whether by accident or design, is geared to crush the individual, to turn them into a worker ant whose sole purpose is to strengthen and glorify Japan. I saw an article about suicide in Metropolis which overplayed the shyness issue a bit, but had some interesting ideas: http://metropolis.co.jp/features/the-last-word/more-than-just-a-number/ Cellphones, the internet, websites are just tools, and shouldn't be blamed. What's wrong with Japan that so many people would rather die than live here?

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well said Truth Sayer. I live with in 50 million people and I am so lonely. Every one is so busy or buried in the Textual, Televised and Animated worlds. When one looks up from these distraction and sees a sea of inhumane infrastructure where else is there to escape for most Japanese?

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Blah, blah,blah! Something is very, very WRONG with a country that has so many of its citizens committing SUICIDE! I want to say RIP but I am sure their souls must still be hurting after this horrible act of killing oneself.

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@elbudamexicano...

yeah something is wrong and its how the society see suicide...its more or less condoned! ok, ok, its ur life so what?..not true..your life has others involved ppl who love you, a mother, father , children..its selfish to promote such insanity.. loco!!!(crazy)..if you ask me.. ppl who commit suicide are in need of emotional support..not ppl telling them its your life so go ahead!

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@VelvetRosetta: i agree with you completely when you wrote that people who commit (attempt) suicide need emotional support.. but who is going to give that support? Not just a sympathy card, not just a hug 4 a moment or a hand to wipe away tears.. there is no quick fix for the heart of a human being. The people who attempt and ultimately succeed in suicide are those people who do not have that emotional support.. there may well be friends there may well BE family.. and yes those people maybe.. MAYBE will feel hurt and confused and even angry that someone they know or are related to committed suicide.. but where were they then when that person was still alive? Becoming more and more sick in their heart.. losing hope.. feeling lost or trapped and becoming more and more convinced that suicide was their only escape? Suicide is not something that can be fixed AFTER the person kills themself - be there for the people in your life who matter to you NOW.. while they are still here and there is still hope. Be that hope if they have none.. be that friend that lover that sister that person who is there when they are in trouble. That is the real lesson of suicide for those who survive.

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Well suicide is never the answer. Using myself as a guinea pig here. I to have suffered from depression most of my life. The last 10 years have been pretty worthless but I keep going. So why haven't I committed suicide? Well it's not like I haven't thought about it in the past. I don't really fit into society that well either. Although instead of that effecting me and wanting to end it all. It has made me stronger more determined to make it though. Are Japanese so easy to give up on life when times get tough? Sure life's a struggle with no certainties but what is!! It took me nearly 15 years to realise I was good at learning languages. Although at one time i didn't consider myself good at anything. I still struggle but I do my best and make the most of it. If I ended my life long ago then I may have never discovered this hidden talent. Albert Einstein once said 90% of life is failure and the other 10% success. In my case 99% life is failure and 1% success. Although it it is that one percent chance that things will get better which keeps me going. I think about what my family would feel like if I were to leave this world. I am the last of my family and a linage that goes back hundreds of years. So in a way that motivates me as well.

What will my ancestors think and will I live up to their expectations? What hardships will I create for my family if I were to dissolve? To commit suicide is to die in disgrace and without honor. When someone in one's family commits suicide it stays with you your entire life. Which can transfer to your family and your children's family as well. What legacy will you leave for future generations for better or for worse. If I could look into a crystal ball what future may these poor souls have had. Maybe someone would find a cure for cancer. Maybe someone would save someone else's life. Maybe someone would become President or Prime Minister of their state or country. When I see so many unnecessary deaths in Japan it tears at my very soul. I may not know you but I do care. Maybe if more Japanese realized that they are not alone in this world. There are others, millions of us just like you with the same hopes, fears, struggles,dreams ambitions as you have. One can never hope to be at peace and in harmony when not at peace with oneself. Japan has so much to offer the world and it is sad they value life so little. I hope this will change in time for their sake and ours as well. ^_^

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