Buddhist Monk Confronts Japan's Suicide Culture

Japan?s suicide rate is twice that of the United States. More than 30,000 people a year kill themselves in Japan.

So many people jump in front of subway trains that when a train stops between stations, people just assume it?s a suicide.

A Buddhist monk, Ittetsu Nemoto, decided he wanted to do something about that. He now works with depressed Japanese people who make the journey to his temple.

Larissa MacFarquhar, a staff writer for The New Yorker, wrote about Nemoto in a recent issue.

?There?s a sense that he and a few other priests are trying to help people rethink this choice, to think that suicide is not a good choice,? MacFarquhar said. ?Even though suffering may be ennobling, suicide is not.?

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Source: http://kuow.org/post/buddhist-monk-confronts-japans-suicide-culture

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