Suicides are rather common in Japan. Tomo, who travels a lot on the trains around the Kanto area almost daily, noticed that there were a lot more suicides over this past December/January and it has since slowed down a bit.
Why do I connect train travel with suicides? Because in Japan, that is a common way to go. I think that is very selfish and inconsiderate because each suicide on the train tracks affects thousands of commuters, even when not during the peak travel hours. The way Japan is connected, the trains are usually the fastest (and cheapest) mode of transportation. The affected travellers may not be able to easily change the mode of transportation. What if the affected traveller is going to an important exam? Or the affected traveller is going on to Narita/Haneda and may miss the flight? Or the affected traveller is rushing to the hospital to meet a dying family member for the last time? A train delay by about an hour (I think that is how long the train companies take to clean up the site and resume services) could totally inconvenience if not change someone's life.
Last week, a policeman tried to stop a 39-year old woman from committing suicide on the train tracks. The train neared, and he desperately tried to push her into one of the spaces below the platform to avoid the oncoming train (most of the platforms here have it for that very purpose). She resisted, the train hit them. He was in a coma for the past week and it was in today's papers that he died yesterday. She survived with injuries.
How tragic for him and his family.
More here :http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20070212p2a00m0na016000c.html
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