SUICIDES IN TOKIO

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 25, 13 February 1937, Page 11

SUICIDES IN TOKIO

'Ilie Dcspair of Youth

Men are more apt' than women to commifc suicide. Intolerable pain and unfortunate love affairs are the most powerful causes which impel Japanoso to take their own lives. Poison is the preferred means of suicide, with leaping into voicano eraters and drowning ranking as second and third in this conection. Suicides are most common in May and least frequent in October. These ^are among the outstanding conclusions euggcsted by an investigation and classification of the 15,633 cases of (suicide which oceurred in Tokio between 1931 and 1935, 3299 suicides were attributed to acute phy. sical pain; 1651 to disappointed love, over five hundred of these being double suicides; 1325 to family dis-(

putes; 1085 to melancholia; 923 to ma* terial hardships and 766 to unemployment. The others were not' classified, f . Young people eeem to be most prone to suicide, as almost two-thirds of tho cases investigated - f ell - between •' the ages of sixteen and thirty."'-. Climatic conditions are; found to influence the suicide rate. as more people take their lives when the ' humidity, is exeessive. Two of the most popular places for committing suicide are the crater of Mount Mihara, on the island of Oshima, and the picturesque Kegon FaUs, above Nikko. ; The suicides on Mount Mihara have become so numerous that steamship companies require passengers for th# iSsland to purchase return ticketa.,