I’m just another foreigner living in Japan. I live in South Tokyo just outside of the huge ex-pat community. I hope that what you find here in these pages will be useful, informative, entertaining, or some combination of the three. And, if you have anything you’d like to share, feel free. I, for one, enjoy learning new things and hope to learn something from everyone who has something they want to share here. So come on in, browse, and share.
Many people have successfully found their life partners online. 
These days, however, some people in Japan are finding their death partners online. There have been several stories in the news this year and last year about people in the Kanto area meeting up for group suicides. Upon investigation, in some cases, police found that the participants had met online. To me this is both heart-wrenching and comical at the same time. It’s heart-wrenching in that these people were desperate to die, but did not want to be alone in their final moments. What’s comical (in a sick way that only weird people like myself can appreciate) is that I can imagine the ad-line for a site dedicated to such a service: ‘Tired of life? Deep in debt? Finding it difficult to get over a failed relationship? Thinking of making the grand escape, but would rather do so with like-minded individuals? Well, now there’s a convenient online service just for you: It’s called goodbyeworld.com.’
Ok, I’ll stop there. Here’s the latest from the Mainichi Shinbun:
Trio of strangers commit group suicide in Saitama hotel
KAWAGOE, Saitama — A group of two men and a woman appear to have committed a group suicide in a hotel here over the weekend, police said.
Three bodies were found in the hotel together with a suicide note.
The dead included a 35-year-old unemployed man from Asaka, Saitama Prefecture, a 19-year-old male university student from Chita, Aichi Prefecture, and a 23-year-old female university student from Tokyo’s Meguro-ku.
None of the three knew each other and police believe they met up through an online site and agreed to die together. (Mainichi Shinbun)
Filed under: Commentary, News-Japan
I read a story about a woman who threw her 2 kids off a 6 story building before killing herself. One of my adult students said it was because she did not want her kids to suffer from the embarrassment of her suicide?
Very common mental defect around here….apparently.
“Selfish” squared!!!
I’m sure these sites must require payment in advance.
That just makes good business sense.
Jeez.
I heard suicide is the second highest cause of death in Japan, after cancer!
You’d think these groups of people would meet up and say “wait a minute. We actually have friends now, so we don’t have to kill ourselves anymore.”
It’s just natural “self selection” Now if we could only get some lawyers and politico’s to “Jim Jones” themselves:)