Incest PTSD

Sex abuse of granddaughter to cost man 59 mil. yen

"The Tokyo District Court ordered a 80-year-old man to pay 59.2 million yen in compensation to his granddaughter after sexually abusing her for eight years, abuse that caused her to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Presiding Judge Ryosuke Yasunami said Friday that the 24-year-old Tokyo woman had become unable to work after being repeatedly sexually abused by her grandfather.

The compensation includes estimated lost earnings, damages that are not normally taken into account.

According to the ruling, the man forced his granddaughter to have sex with him or molested her several times a week for eight years from the winter of 1992, when she was a sixth-grade primary school student.

The grandfather allegedly threatened her by saying he would kill her and himself if she told anyone about the abuse.

The woman became sick when she was in the second year of high school. She was diagnosed with PTSD in 2003 after moving out of the house in which she had lived with her grandfather. Even now, she panics in a crowd and is unable to work.

The man denied sexually abusing his granddaughter, but the judge rejected his claim and ordered him to pay compensation covering a 20-year period that includes the woman's estimated lost earnings.

Manabu Saito, a psychiatrist who specializes in counseling victims of sexual abuse, said the amount of compensation was low when the seriousness of the psychological damage done was taken into account.

"It has a great significance [for the judiciary] that allegations of sexual abuse were upheld based on past memories, and I expect courts will see more similar cases from now on," he said. "PTSD should be accepted more often [by courts] in the future."

The Yomiuri Shimbun, October 16, 2005

Trauma Counseling

Children, parents need trauma counseling

"NIIGATA (Kyodo) More than 1,100 elementary and junior high school students and their parents hit by the earthquakes in Niigata last October need counseling, according to a recent survey by the Niigata Prefectural Government.

The survey was conducted by the board of education prior to the Oct. 23 anniversary of the quake, which resulted in the loss of 40 lives.

Of the 72,000 respondents, 1,150 students and their parents are still suffering from apathy and stress, which sometimes damages their relations with other people, according to the survey.

Their psychological sufferings also derives from economic difficulties, the survey said, adding that gaps in household economic strength are widening as time passes."

The Japan Times, October 7, 2005

Kumamoto Suicide Network

Rescue workers, psychiatrists joining hands to prevent suicides


"KUMAMOTO-Suicides in Japan have topped 30,000 each year for the past seven years, and the number of attempts is estimated to be 10 times as high.

So, psychiatric hospitals and emergency medical institutions here have banded together to fight the problem, with a prefecture-wide project to offer mental health care to people who have attempted suicide.

Called the "Kumamoto medical support network for suicide prevention," it will feature close cooperation between the emergency doctors who treat patients immediately after their suicide attempts, and the psychiatrists who can care for the patients' mental health in the long term.

The network is set to start in November, and is receiving nationwide attention as an advanced system for suicide prevention.

Many of those who attempt suicide go home soon after receiving emergency medical treatment at hospitals.

Some attempt to kill themselves again, and return to hospital, where the cycle repeats. Eventually, in some cases, the suicide attempts succeed.

"We want to work toward suicide prevention by taking the outlook of patients into account," said psychiatrist Koichi Mimura, director of the Kumamoto Mental Health Welfare Association.

To break the tragic cycle, the association, which already has a telephone counseling service for those considering suicide, sent out a request to medical institutions in Kumamoto Prefecture for the establishment of the network.

About 80 medical institutions that offer emergency treatment and 47 psychiatric hospitals agreed to join. The network will be operated jointly by the Kumamoto Mental Health Welfare Association, the Kumamoto Medical Association and the Kumamoto Association of Psychiatric Hospitals.

In the new system, emergency ward doctors will assess whether they think mental health care is necessary for patients who have attempted suicide.

If doctors feel it is, they will inform those involved.

If the patients agree to the therapy, the doctors then call psychiatric hospitals in the network, for psychiatric referrals.

The health ministry's task force on suicide prevention stressed in its 2002 report that cooperation between psychiatric hospitals and institutions offering emergency medical services is paramount. The network is designed to facilitate that link..."

International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun, October 24, 2005

Akita Suicide Prevention

Akita ups spending to prevent suicides

"Akita Prefecture, which has had the nation's highest suicide rates for the past 10 years, plans to launch a new prevention campaign this month.

The 5.72-million-yen program will focus on mental health in the workplace and helping people recover from economic hardship. It will also provide free telephone counseling.

The prefectural government will also give leaflets on suicide prevention to all households in the prefecture.

The alarming pace of suicides this year has prompted the urgency of the program. As of the end of August, 328 people in the prefecture had committed suicide, 13 more than in the same time period last year.

"We want to stop the fast pace this year so that a decline in the rates takes root," said an official with the prefectural government's Health Policy Division.

In all of Japan, the annual number of suicides has topped 30,000 for the past seven years.

The Akita prefectural government started suicide prevention projects in fiscal 2000.

However, the number of suicides kept increasing, topping 500 a year for the first time in 2003, at 519.

The prefecture's suicide rate that year was 44.6 persons per 100,000, the highest ever for the prefecture and 1.7 times higher than the national average.

Last year, the annual number of suicides in the prefecture decreased to 452, but Akita Prefecture still had the highest rate in Japan.."

The Asahi Shimbun/International Herald Tribune, October 10, 2005

Retirement and Divorce

Sick of Their Husbands in Graying Japan

Sick of Their Husbands in Graying Japan
Stress Disorder Diagnosed in Many Women After Spouses Retire


TOKYO -- Sakura Terakawa, 63, describes her four decades of married life in a small urban apartment as a gradual transition from wife to mother to servant. Communication with her husband started with love letters and wooing words under pink cherry blossoms. It devolved over time, she said, into mostly demands for his evening meals and nitpicking over the quality of her housework.

So when he came home one afternoon three years ago, beaming, and announced he was ready to retire, Terakawa despaired.

Retired banker Tomohisa Kotake, second from left, participates in a cooking class at a Men in the Kitchen support group meeting in western Tokyo. (Photo Courtesy Of Men In The Kitchen)

" 'This is it,' I remember thinking. 'I am going to have to divorce him now,' " Terakawa recalled. "It was bad enough that I had to wait on him when he came home from work. But having him around the house all the time was more than I could possibly bear."

Concerned about her financial future if she divorced, Terakawa stuck with their marriage -- only to become one of an extraordinary number of elderly Japanese women stricken with a disorder that experts here have recently begun diagnosing as retired husband syndrome, or RHS.

Feeling chained to the tradition of older women remaining utterly dedicated to their husbands' well-being, Terakawa said, she devoted herself to her spouse. Retirement cut him off from his longtime office social network, leaving him virtually friendless and her with the strain of filling his empty time. Within a few weeks, she said, he was hardly leaving the house, watching television and reading the newspaper -- and barking orders at her. He often forbade her to go out with her friends. When he did let her go, Terakawa said, she had to prepare all his meals before leaving.

After several months, she developed stomach ulcers, her speech began to slur and rashes broke out around her eyes. When doctors discovered polyps in her throat but could find no medical reason for her sudden burst of ailments, she was referred to a psychiatrist who diagnosed stress-related RHS.

Terakawa began receiving therapy from Nobuo Kurokawa, a physician who is one of Japan's leading RHS experts. Kurokawa coined the term retired husband syndrome in a presentation to the Japanese Society of Psychosomatic Medicine in 1991, leading to its use in books, journals and mainstream media here. Confirming Terakawa's account in an interview, Kurokawa said he offered her the same advice he has given numerous other older women in the same position.

"Come to therapy," he said. "Then spend as much time as possible away from your husband."

In Japan, retirement has become a risky business for many wives, who are finding the stress of their husband's presence at home unendurable. Though after-retirement stress is a common problem in most developed countries as husbands and wives try to balance relationships in their twilight years, analysts say Japan has become extraordinary for myriad reasons -- including the fact that one-fifth of Japanese are now over 65, the highest percentage in the world.

Even as gender roles have changed for younger people here, with women entering the workforce in record numbers, older Japanese have remained far more rigid. As with most Japanese men of his generation, Terakawa's husband demanded strict obedience from her, she said, even while he spent his life almost entirely apart from her and their three children. He left home for the office just after dawn and stayed out late socializing after work. He even took most of his vacations with colleagues and clients. Those long absences, she said, made his presence around the house after retirement even more jolting.

"I had developed my own life, my own way of doing things, in the years when he was never home," Terakawa said. She said she cannot even stand to look at her husband across the dinner table now and sits at an angle so she can stare out a window instead.

Part of the problem is that the nature of Japanese family life has changed dramatically over the past two decades. The tradition of retired parents living with their married adult children is rapidly disappearing, with new generations remaining single well into their forties and modern young couples choosing greater privacy. As older couples are forced to spend more time alone together, the divorce rate among those married more than 20 years -- a group that includes most of Japan's married senior citizens -- is now the fastest-growing in the country, more than doubling to 41,958 divorces in 2000 compared with 20,435 cases in 1985, according to government statistics..."

Washington Post Foreign Service, October 17, 2005

"Retired Husband Syndrome"

Wives literally sick of their spouses in Japan


Wives literally sick of their spouses in Japan

By Anthony Faiola
The Washington Post

MEN IN THE KITCHEN
Retired banker Tomohisa Kotake, second from left, participates in a cooking class at a Men in the Kitchen support-group meeting in western Tokyo. He says he will never forget the look in his wife's eyes "the first time I cleaned the house while she was taking a bath." Support groups aim to "retrain" retired Japanese men to be more independent and communicative with their wives.



TOKYO ﾑ Sakura Terakawa, 63, describes her four decades of married life in a small urban apartment as a gradual transition from wife to mother to servant. Communication with her husband started with love letters and wooing words under pink cherry blossoms. It devolved over time, she said, into mostly demands for his evening meals and nitpicking over the quality of her housework.
So when he came home one afternoon three years ago, beaming, and announced he was ready to retire, Terakawa despaired.

" 'This is it,' I remember thinking. 'I am going to have to divorce him now,' " Terakawa recalled. "It was bad enough that I had to wait on him when he came home from work. But having him around the house all the time was more than I could possibly bear."

Concerned about her financial future if she divorced, Terakawa stuck with their marriage ﾑ only to become one of an extraordinary number of elderly Japanese women stricken with a disorder that experts here have recently begun diagnosing as retired husband syndrome, or RHS.

Feeling chained to the tradition of older women remaining utterly dedicated to their husbands' well-being, Terakawa said, she devoted herself to her spouse. Retirement cut him off from his longtime office social network, leaving him virtually friendless and her with the strain of filling his empty time. Within a few weeks, she said, he was hardly leaving the house, watching television and reading the newspaper ﾑ and barking orders at her. He often forbade her to go out with her friends. When he did let her go, Terakawa said, she had to prepare all his meals before leaving.

After several months, she developed stomach ulcers, her speech began to slur and rashes broke out around her eyes. When doctors discovered polyps in her throat but could find no medical reason for her sudden burst of ailments, she was referred to a psychiatrist who diagnosed stress-related RHS.

Terakawa began receiving therapy from Nobuo Kurokawa, a physician who is one of Japan's leading RHS experts. Kurokawa coined the term in a presentation to the Japanese Society of Psychosomatic Medicine in 1991, leading to its use in books, journals and mainstream media here. Confirming Terakawa's account, Kurokawa said he offered her the same advice he has given numerous other older women in the same position.

"Come to therapy," he said. "Then spend as much time as possible away from your husband."

One-fifth older than 65

In Japan, retirement has become a risky business for many wives, who are finding the stress of their husband's presence at home unendurable. Though after-retirement stress is a common problem in most developed countries as husbands and wives try to balance relationships in their twilight years, analysts say Japan has become extraordinary for myriad reasons ﾑ including the fact that one-fifth of Japanese are older than 65, the highest percentage in the world.

Even as gender roles have changed for younger people here, with women entering the workforce in record numbers, older Japanese have remained far more rigid. As with most Japanese men of his generation, Terakawa's husband demanded strict obedience from her, she said, even while he spent his life almost entirely apart from her and their three children. He left home for the office just after dawn and stayed out late socializing after work. He even took most of his vacations with colleagues and clients. Those long absences, she said, made his presence around the house after retirement even more jolting.

"I had developed my own life, my own way of doing things, in the years when he was never home," Terakawa said. She said she cannot even stand to look at her husband across the dinner table now and sits at an angle so she can stare out a window instead.
Retraining husbands

Kurokawa estimates that as many as 60 percent of the wives of retired men may suffer from some degree of RHS.

With a record number of Japanese men set to retire ﾑ almost 7 million from 2007 to 2009 ﾑ experts warn that the disorder has the potential to explode. The Japanese boast the longest life span on Earth, yet older Japanese men still cling to the outmoded idea of wives as servile attendants ﾑ leaving many elderly women to view their longevity as more of a curse than a blessing. One survey from the Tokyo-based advertising firm Hakuhodo showed that while 85 percent of soon-to-retire husbands are delighted by the idea of retirement, 40 percent of their wives described themselves as "depressed" by the prospect.
Tomohisa Kotake, 66, a retired banker, knows the story well. "At first, I was a typical retired Japanese husband ﾑ I didn't do anything for myself and asked my wife to serve me," he said. It immediately strained his marriage. Part of the problem, he said, was that his wife still had many female friends, but most of his friends had been work acquaintances. Pushed by his wife, he finally joined one of the more than 3,000 support groups that have recently sprouted up nationwide, aimed at "retraining" retired Japanese men to be more independent and communicative with their wives.

Kotake's group ﾑ Men in the Kitchen ﾑ taught him how to shop, cook and clean for himself. He now does the dishes and cooks for his wife at least once a week. "I will never forget the look of happiness in her eyes the first time I cleaned the house while she was taking a bath," he said.

Kotake's wife, Nobuko Kotake, 62, now speaks glowingly of her husband. She said she had given up many outings with female friends to spend more time with him.

"By Japanese standards, we are still relatively young even though we are retired," Tomohisa Kotake said. "We have a long life ahead of us. It is better that we spend that time enjoying each other. Doing more around the house is a small price for me to pay."

Seattle Times, October 18, 2005

Stress

Privacy lessens stress of being evacuated

"NIIGATA--Evacuees who camped out in their cars after the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake experienced less stress than those who stayed in public shelters, such as school gymnasiums, according to a recent analysis of a survey.

According to the analysis, this was because people living in their cars had more privacy and could keep informed of events by listening to the car radio.

The original survey was carried out by the Japanese Red Cross Society five months after the earthquake. Two thousand evacuees were chosen at random and asked questions about their mental health.

The results of the survey were analyzed by researchers at the psychiatric medicine laboratory at Niigata University, led by Hideki Kuwabara.

In the survey, 47 percent of the evacuees who stayed with friends or relatives said they felt stressed out, as did 41 percent who lived in public shelters and 35 percent who lived in their own houses. But only 33 percent who lived in their cars reported feeling stress.

But Kuwabara cautioned he does not recommend evacuees staying in cars for a long time because of the risk of so-called economy-class syndrome.

However, commenting on why more people in public shelters experienced heavy stress, Kuwabara said, "The worst place to live was a school gym because people are always coming and going, and there's no privacy."

Evacuees could live in the same comfort they enjoyed in their own homes provided they had privacy and access to information, Kuwabara said, adding he hoped the survey results could be used to make life better for evacuees.

The survey also documented the period for which the evacuees said they felt stress. Sixty percent said they felt stressed for a week, 40 percent said a month and 20 percent said they still experienced stress five months after the quake..."

Yomiuri Newspaper, October 23, 2005

Divorce

Divorce

"Divorce in middle-age cuts a decade off a man's life, according to Shukan Post (10/28), which adds that Japan is bracing itself for a wave of split marriages when baby boomers start retiring in a couple of years.

Japan's divorce rate peaked in 2002, when 289,838 couples untied the knot, and though the rate has declined marginally ever since, splitting up appears to have fatal consequences for the country's men.

Japan's "2007 Problem" sees baby boomers turn 60 and start retiring, causing a decrease in the workforce and tax revenue and increase in demands on the taxpayers to pay for old age pensions. It could also spark an increase in deadly divorces.

"Women are almost always the instigators of divorce in middle-aged couples. There are many housewives who wait until their husbands have received their retirement pay before they ask for a divorce. At the moment, there are loads of these women just waiting for their husbands to retire," Divorce consultant Hiromi Ikeuchi tells Shukan Post.

Right now, housewives who've never done a day's paid work can still claim an old age pension. Even if they divorce in middle or old age, the government will pay them a basic pension regardless of the terms of their divorce.

But in 2007, the system will change. Women will be able to receive up to half of the husband's entitlements, which for most salarymen are significantly higher than the basic pension. And the government will ensure payments are made to both parties. This makes it much easier for older women to divorce their husbands, but it's killing older Japanese men, according to the weekly.

The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research says that divorce shortens the lives of middle-aged or old men.

"Our institute calculates the average life spans of four types of people those with spouses, the unmarried, those whose spouses have died and those who live alone after divorce," the institute's Ryusaburo Sato tells Shukan Post. "Those who are alone following a divorce have the shortest life spans of all..."

Mainichi Newspaper, October 21, 2005

Autism

Tetsuo Ishii: Autism facilities need help, not hindrance


Asahi News


"The concept of "deinstitutionalization" is being debated in welfare circles for people with disabilities. And the idea has triggered a recent trend to regard institutional facilities as problematic or even useless. I am very concerned about this trend because it has a negative impact on support toward autistic children and adults.

Autism Society Japan that I represent has also been advancing normalization. Of course, we support the goal to create a social environment in which people with disabilities can also live normally in the local community like everybody else.

But at least for the time being, institutional facilities are indispensable to help people with autism.

As workers and helpers at institutions specializing in caring for autistics, we know many cases in which autistic people, who were forced to live and defend themselves in harsh environments in local communities, recovered their peace of mind in institutional facilities.

They are people who were hurt living in an unfriendly society where discrimination and prejudice against autism still prevail based on misunderstandings and ignorance.

But among individuals diagnosed with autism are some who develop the ability to communicate with others on their own. Such people can live independently in the local community provided they receive proper support.

On the other hand, some autistic people cannot live on their own or with the help of their families alone in the local community, while others have no families to depend on.

We need to understand the characteristics of individuals with autism to provide proper care. Depending on the circumstances of individuals, some need all-around support in everyday life and this is where institutional facilities can meet their needs.

Traditionally, the quality of medical, welfare and educational support available to people with autism was poor and many parents inevitably found themselves getting old before they could establish the foundation for stable living of their autistic children.

Furthermore, it was not uncommon for autistic people who applied for entrance at mental institutions to be rejected. That is why parents have put up money to build facilities specializing in the care for autistic people across Japan.

In most cases, in addition to providing counseling and residence, these facilities have offered a wide range of services such as guidance in everyday life, short stay, treatment for persons who have serious behavioral disorders, research and development of support technology, training of support staff and coordination with related organizations.

From now on, in addition to the above-mentioned services, I think their functions should be strengthened to also provide educational and training programs to residents and set up group homes attached to institutional facilities to help individuals develop ties with the local community.

They should also provide support in vocational training to help autistic people find work, health care, counseling and outpatient services and support for recreational and cultural activities.

Instead of just leaving institutional facilities as they are, support is needed to expand existing ones and develop them into bases for community support. What is needed is a policy to flexibly tie local communities and institutions for autistic people.

For example, helpers who have highly specialized knowledge in autism are an important asset of privately run facilities for people with autism. In order to advance research and training in providing support, it would be effective to "make good use of" the viewpoints of institutional facilities. It is just as important to make use of existing assets as it is to meet new social systems.

The current policy of cutting support to institutional facilities is undermining the morale of trained supporters who work at such facilities and making the lives of people with autism and their families unstable.

I support the trend to encourage people with disabilities to live in the local community. However, it is also true that some individuals with autism cannot be supported by families alone. There is a growing voice calling for a place where they can live with security and receive reeducation.

I want the government to implement a policy aimed at reinforcing institutional facilities so that they can serve the function of a backup to families who support autistic individuals."

Tetsuo Ishii is president of Autism Society Japan

International Herald Tribune/Asahi News, September 26, 2005

Internet Suicide Prevention

JAPAN: Police to ask ISPs for tips on Net-arranged suicide bids

Authorities establish police guidelines for approaching Internet providers to release personal e-mails regarding suicide


Japan Times Police to ask ISPs for tips on Net-arranged suicide bids
Thursday, October 6, 2005

The National Police Agency compiled guidelines Wednesday for calling on Internet service providers to tip off police when they sense Internet messages may be leading up to suicides, NPA officials said.

The agency formulated the guidelines for police nationwide to urge the providers to disclose information if the date of the proposed suicide is imminent or if the messages specify place, motive, method or other details, they said.

Messages containing the writer's explicit intention to die would also be subject to tips.

There were 27 cases between January and August in which people got acquainted with each other via suicide Web sites and then jointly took their lives. The 75 deaths stemming from those cases have already topped the 55 deaths that occurred similarly over the whole of last year.

In many instances, these people committed suicide together by burning charcoal in enclosed spaces. "We want to reduce the number of deaths as much as possible by working with the (Internet) industry," an NPA official said.

The move follows the communications and Internet service industry's decision in August to provide police with such information, including privacy data, by setting its own guidelines. They require providers to disclose information to police as an emergency step when suicide attempts are deemed imminent or when posted messages are specific or show strong determination.

UCLA Institute,Asia Media, Media News Daily, 10 October, l2005

Asia Suicide Conference

Asia/ Time to talk: The stark reality of suicide


"MANILA--The World Health Organization's first conference on Suicide Prevention in the Western Pacific, held here in mid-August, drew delegates from 20 countries.

Each had a similar message: The suicide rate in their countries is rising-often alarmingly.

The issue is still taboo in some Asian countries and many have yet to even compile suicide statistics. Japan, on the other hand, has been dealing with the problem for years.

However, alarm bells began to sound in 1998, when the number of suicides in Japan jumped by 8,000 over the previous year.

Every year for the past seven years, in excess of 30,000 Japanese have taken their lives.

Experts are now warning that other nations in Asia, South Korea in particular, are headed down the same track.

According to Seo Dongwoo, a researcher from the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs, the number of South Korean suicides hit the 10,000-mark for the first time in 2003, with 10,932, the highest number on record.

"It is as if South Korea is becoming like Japan, especially during its period following the early 1990s, when Japan's asset-inflated economy collapsed," he told the conference.

In 1997, South Korea was pummeled by the Asian financial crisis. Many companies went under. The country's gross domestic product nose-dived, from 7 percent in 1996 to minus 6.9 percent in 1998.

Meanwhile, the number of suicides skyrocketed to 8,569 in 1998 from 6,022 the previous year.

Although suicides fell to below 7,000 in 2000, as the economy started to recover, the figure started growing again in 2001 in tandem with accumulated debt held by households.

Seo points the finger almost exclusively at economic recession, citing figures that show men in their 40s are most likely to kill themselves.

In 2003, he said, 2,257 men in that category took their lives.

The country is now trying to work out ways of bringing down the suicide rate. For example, people with mental health problems are being urged to see doctors at regular intervals. Whether this and other measures will have any effect remains to be seen.

China reported a drop in the suicide rate from 18.30 per 100,000 people in 1998 to 14.55 in 2002. However, it does not compile country-wide suicide statistics, so the figures are only rough estimates.

Nevertheless, they reveal disturbing trends.

Chinese experts told the 46 government officials, researchers and psychiatrists gathered at the conference the suicide rate in rural areas is triple that of urban areas, which suggests low-income levels are largely to blame.

Even more alarming is the number of young women who take their lives, the experts said.

Figures show that men are more likely to commit suicide than women. But in rural China, the number of suicides by women in their 20s is estimated to be double that of their male peers. By method, 58 percent of suicides in rural residents were accomplished by swallowing agricultural chemicals. This compares to just 2 percent in Japan.

Hong Kong researchers said, meanwhile, that the preferred method of suicide was to jump from a tall building, of which the former British colony has many.

Singapore is faring relatively better than its Asian neighbors, as evidenced by its 2001 suicide rate of 9.2 per 100,000. But for women aged 15 to 24, the rate is higher than the world average.

In Micronesia, said a government official, a total of 1,087 suicides were reported to the government in the 40-year period up to 1999.

Generational clashes between "parents who cherish their traditional culture and children who adore Western culture" were cited as a key motive for suicides in the Western Pacific island group.

While all acknowledge the frightening statistics, experts say little can be done in the way of prevention without greater knowledge of the task at hand.

Of the 20 participating countries and regions, only a handful of countries and regions, including Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Hong Kong, keep national statistics on suicides.

Many lack even the most basic necessity-manpower.

Cambodia, for example, has only 26 psychiatrists, and although that is far more than the two left practising in 1975, it is clearly not nearly enough.

The country is also facing a huge shortage of researchers to gather and analyze suicide data, an official said.

The situation is similar in Mongolia.

A researcher provided the conference with suicide data from only one hospital in Ulan Bator. It was the only information available, he said.

Culture, experts agreed, poses yet another barrier.

Due to mainly religious reasons, Malaysia and Singapore still view suicide as a criminal act, while in the Mariana Islands, suicide is considered a "disgrace," and is, therefore, an issue that is clouded in secrecy..."


... "Also on the table for discussion was the media's role in easing the soaring suicide rates, with some pointing to reports showing cases in which suicides were prompted by media reports.

Yoshitomo Takahashi, a professor of behavioral science at the National Defense Medical College, said that after popular Japanese singers killed themselves, it was not unheard of for fans to also end their lives.

"The media should refrain from sensational coverage of suicides and from reporting suicide methods in detail (to avoid copycat suicides). The media's cooperation and understanding is vital,'' said Takahashi.

A researcher from South Korea echoed Takahashi's remarks, saying the media can play a major role.

Citing a recent case in which a famous actress killed herself, he said media reports highlighted the fact that the woman, afraid of leaving herself open to prejudice, had stopped receiving treatment for depression. Had she continued seeing doctors, she may have overcome her suicidal tendencies, the researcher said.

Explaining cases such as this in the media could help ease misconceptions on mental health.

He said the media's role was so important in this regard that an academic society for suicide prevention had started handing out special awards to media companies that are sensitive in their reporting of suicides.."

International Herald Tribune/Asahi: October 1,2005