The Reasoning Behind Japanese Suicide

By: Marina Neuman

Produced & edited by: Trianna Connolly 
Instructor:  Dr. Yusuf Kalyango 

According to the JapanTimes, Japan’s suicide rate hit its lowest number in 22 years, declining to 21,897 suicides in 2016. While that number does not make Japan the highest suicide rate in the world, it makes the country the second worst among eight industrialized nations. 

 Karoshi

 In 2015, national attention was drawn when Matsuri Takahashi, a Japanese worker, committed suicide. After further investigation, Japanese regulators found that Matsuri had been forced to work over 105 hours of overtime in the month leading up to her suicide. The extreme schedule resulted in her suicide. Karōshi, which can be translated from Japanese to, “overworked to death,” has become an epidemic in Japan over the last few decades. Labor lawyers and citizens groups have pushed for changes to Japanese law to recognize karoshi as a serious social issue.

 Their efforts resulted in a 2014 law that called for better working conditions but did not force companies to act. According to Sonam Dorji, a Japanese tour guide, “Everybody does over time job. Everyone works 16..18..hours a day. For instance one completes today's work, he immediately starts tomorrow's work..like wise. Sleeping only 4 hours a day is normal. Stress level is very high. There is no time for a love life. No time for marriage. A big chunk of population is unmarried and they have their own associations like clubs.”

 Culture in context

 Japanese culture may also play a large role in high suicide rates. This is because the tradition of death instead of defeat, capture, and perceived shame has been deeply entrenched in Japanese military culture. According to history.com, historically, Japanese Samurai soldiers would perform “seppuku” (an honorable suicide by disembowelment) rather than fall to the enemy.

Japanese art depicting "seppuku", an honorable suicide.
Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

“I knew at least two people who committed suicide,” said Japanese linguist Yumi Nakata in her blog. "Historically, suicide was considered a virtue. Samurai used to kill himself to regain their honor. Even in modern Japan, some people rather end their lives than living with shame for whatever reasons that they have.”

 Mental health crisis

“Unlike in America or Europe, there is no government-mandated system of training and qualifying clinical psychologists…Mental illness is still very much a taboo here. There is little popular understanding of depression and those suffering its symptoms are often too scared to talk about it," says Vickie Skorji, the Lineline Director of TELL in Tokyo.

In fact, according to, Noriyasu Yoneda, Citizens Commission on Human Rights Japan Coordinator, “Up until about 2010, the field of psychiatric treatment in Japan was kind of lawless area. High rates of psychiatrists prescribed too many psychotropic drugs without evidence.”

The call for change came in 2010 when families who had been bereaved by suicide investigated more than 1,000 suicide cases. Their findings showed that high rates of suicide cases had received psychiatry treatment then later committed suicide by taking a large dosage of the psychotrope drugs which had been prescribed by psychiatrists. The finding then forced the government to warn of the dangers of prescription psychotropic drugs. 

Government Effort 

While the Japanese government had made some effort to decrease the overall suicide rate, how much impact they have actually made is questionable. One attempt that has been made by local governments to stop or reduce suicide had been to place signs at the entry of one of the most infamous suicide areas in Japan, Aokigahara, also known as the Suicide Forest. The signs are in both Japanese and English and urging suicidal visitors to seek help and not kill themselves. 

Entrance to Aokigahara, the Suicide Forest.
Photo Courtesy: keio via flickr.com

There is also a telephone box with a free suicide hotline to call and talk to a counselor. According to Dr. Kenji Takegami of the Japan Stress Check in Tokyo, the government had also made a "support life-line" campaign, to promote using telephone lifelines for people who do not have supports. 

"Of course, after the decrease in suicide cases, the government says that this decrease is due to their lifeline campaigns. However, it is more likely that as the numbers of Welfare recipients increased then less people killed themselves," Takegami said.

**Global Spotlight is a nonprofit educational production, constituting a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law.   

Russia’s Environmental Issues

By: Hayley Harding

Produced and Edited by: Sarah Wagner
Instructor: Dr. Yusuf Kalyango

Russia’s Environmental Issues

Russian diesel locomotives expel carbon emissions, adding to the widespread pollution.
Photo courtesy of: Wikimedia Commons

In the north, much of Russia’s notorious permafrost is melting. In many of the country’s biggest cities in the west, air pollution has Russians breathing dirty air. In the Russian Far East, industrial development has led to illegal logging and poaching along with other problems.

The country — the largest in the world, spanning 11 different time zones — faces a diverse range of environmental problems, but amid limited resources for activists and an increased crackdown on NGOs, it can be difficult for activists to feel like they have any impact.

Those looking to take action may find that it’s hard to know where to even begin.

“It’s really hard to generalize,” Angelina Davydova, a freelance journalist covering environmental issues, said. “It’s really hard to come up with just two or three sentences describing the (environmental) situation because it’s very varied.”

During much of the Soviet era, the government did not regulate many pollution-creating activities on the grounds it would slow down economic development and business growth. The country has not been quick to remedy the resulting problems or to counter current ones.

Yakimanka District, Moscow, Russia.  Photo Courtesy of: Wikimedia Commons

Generally agreed upon is that in big cities, traffic, manufacturing and other air pollution-producing activities have led to diminished air quality, although “it’s better than it used to be in the latest years of the Soviet Union,” Davydova said.

Other problems include fewer forests for legal logging, smaller habitats for endangered species and, perhaps most crucially of all, limited governmental support for those working to protect parts of the environment that are most at risk. In some places, NGOs working to protect the environment feel government agencies could be working against them.

“Provincial officials often do not support and understand the importance of conservation work by NGOs,” said Sergei Bereznuk, director of Phoenix Fund, a non-governmental dedicated to biodiversity recovery. “Instead, such work, especially when funded from abroad, can be considered as subversive activities. On the other hand, it is almost impossible for independent NGOs to receive governmental funding so there is no cooperation and support.”

2017 is Russia’s “year of ecology,” according to a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in January 2016, but Human Rights Watch reports it to be one of the worst for environmentalists, declaring environmentally focused NGOs “an endangered species.”

The government audited Bellona, a Norwegian-based international environmental group, and declared it a “foreign agent,” a label that indicates a group works with or accepts money from foreign governments, which is not allowed under Russian law. The tag has connotations of Cold War-era espionage and comes with a heavy stigma for the groups to which it is applied.

Such a label makes it harder for a group to work within the nation’s borders and makes it subject to more extensive restrictions and audits. It is often a kiss of death, forcing an organization to close its doors. Seven environmental groups have been shuttered since the law came into effect in 2012, just a few of the dozens of organizations to get the label.

Financial support from overseas, even when not from government agencies, can be tricky to come by. For instance, the recent tensions between the United States and Russia coupled with the Russian financial crisis has hurt Phoenix Fund’s fundraising efforts.

“For the last few years, Phoenix (Fund) has lost support from a number of donors in the US and the UK,” Bereznuk said. “We are hoping that the economic crisis will end soon and people and businesses will be able to go on giving their donations for nature conservation efforts.”

The government does not often provide resources or solutions to act in response to such groups once they are gone, creating ever more problems for those still working to help with conservation and other environmental efforts.

“Russia’s state institutions are very weak in terms of working for real solutions, and to avoid public disapproval, they prefer to hide the real problem behind false official reports,” Violetta Ryabko, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Russia, said. “Greenpeace Russia’s role is to be a source of reliable information, provide … expertise and share the experience of educational work.”

In some cases, though, the government helps with preservation. In a statement from World Wildlife Fund Russia press officer Daria Kudryavtseva, the organization says some general progress has been made.

For instance, Russia signed the Paris climate accord (although it has not yet ratified it), a move the United States also made but then reneged. The Russian Federation also increased the number of specially protected areas and “introduced a temporary moratorium on issuing new licenses to companies to develop oil and gas fields on the Arctic shelf,” Kudryavtseva said.

While these small steps serve to benefit the country as a whole, the repercussions from governmental actions can mean “the moment (for conservation efforts) can be missed,” Bereznuk said.

Many experts, however, agree that environmental activists in Russia face significant challenges.

“Some environmental activists are facing pressure, political pressure, social pressure, sometimes even violence, but that’s not the universal case,” Davydova said. “There are some regions where environmental activists are super successful and super proactive, and then there are others where they are being oppressed or not being heard. … There are many dimensions to this story.”

पत्रकारिता कि पार्टीकारिता ?

पत्रकारिता कि पार्टीकारिता ?
—अविरल थापा

यति बेला नयाँ नेतृत्वका लागि नेपाल पत्रकार महासंघको आसन्न चुनावले पत्रकारहरुको चहलपहल निकै बढेको देखिन्छ । विभिन्न गुट उपगुट देखि लिएर को पत्रकार कुन पार्टीको , कसलाई उठाउने र कसलाई जिताउने भन्ने कसरत खुलेआम र पृष्ठभूमिमा पनि बढदैगएको छ । नेपालको पत्रकारिता जगतमा सबैभन्दा निराशाजनक र उराठ लाग्ने दृश्य नै यही हो ।
पत्रकारिताको सिद्धान्त र धर्मले भन्छ ,पत्रकार भनेको कुनै राजनीतिक दल ,व्यक्ति विशेष वा कुनै समूहमा लागेको त के अलिकति ढल्केको पनि देखिनुु हुँदैन । तर हाम्रो बिडम्बना के हो भने यहाँ खुलेआम रुपमा प्रेस चौतारी भनेको नेकपा एमाले नजिक, नेपाल प्रेस युनियन भनेको नेपाली कंग्रेस नजिक र नेपाल प्रेस सेन्टर भनेको माओवादी केन्द्र नजिक भनेर गर्वका साथ छाती ठोक्ने गरिन्छ । यसरी पार्टीको भातृसंगठन झै आवद्ध हुने जो कसैलाई आफू पत्रकार हँ भन्न पनि  लाज लाग्नुपर्ने हो । पत्रकारिताको आडमा केही राजनीतिक नियुक्ती , केही आर्थिक लाभ र केही थान मन्त्रीका प्रेस सल्लाहकार पडकाउनको लागि आफनो धर्म र विवेकको तिलाञ्जली दिनसक्नेहरु बाट नेपाली पत्रकारिता जगतले के आशा गर्ने ? निष्ठाको पत्रकारिता गरिरहेका श्रमजीवि पत्रकारको पाप नलागोस् तर बाँकीका क्रियाकलाप र दौडधुप हेर्दा ती पत्रकार हुन कि राजनीतिक दलका भजनमण्डली हुन प्रष्ट हुन्छ ।
जो सुकै पत्रकार कुनै पनि दलको कार्यक्रम वा जुलुसमा आफनो कामको सिलसिलामा सहभागी हुन सक्छ तर आफैं मुर्दावाद र जिन्दावाद भन्न थाल्छ भने ,कुम हल्लाउन र मुठ्ठी बटार्न थाल्छ भने ,दलका झण्डा बोक्न र आफैं उफ्रिन थाल्छ भने ऊ छद्म भेषको कार्यकर्ता सिवाय केही हैन । पत्रकारिता छोडेर राजनीतिमा र राजनीति छोडेर पत्रकारितामा लाग्न पाईन्छ तर पत्रकारिता गर्दागर्दै हनुमान लीला देखाउने ढेडुहरुलाई के भन्ने ?आफूलाई आस्था लाग्ने राजनीतिक दललाई भोट हाल्ने र व्यक्तिगतरुपमा समर्थन गर्ने हक सबैमा सुरक्षित छ तर भोट नै माग्दै हिंडने र आधिकारिक रुपमा पत्रकारिता नछोडि दलको उम्मेदवार नै हुने दुस्साहस कहाँबाट प्राप्त हुन्छ ?  कुनै दलले आफनो मुखपत्र निकाल्नु र कसैले अखवार निकाल्नु एकै कुरा हो र ?कसैको नाम नतोकौं तर हालसालै सम्पन्न स्थानीय चुनावमा सामाजिक संजाललाई आधार मान्ने हो भने वरिष्ठ पत्रकार भन्नेहरुले समेत आफनो धोती फुस्केको पत्तो पाएनन् । नेपालमा अदालत भित्र न्यायाधीशका मात्र घोषित संगठन बन्न बाँकी होला नभए हरेक क्षेत्र दल विशेषका सण्डमुण्डहरुको घेराबन्दीमा कैद छन् ।



नेपालको प्रजातान्त्रिक आन्दोलन र राष्ट्रियताको सवालमा यहाँका मिडिया र पत्रकारले जनतालाई र दलकै नेतालाई पनि सूसुचित गर्न र तानाशाही प्रवृति विरुद्ध सतर्क हुन पटकपटक सचेत र साथ दिएकै हुन् । तर यदि कतै सो भूमिका निभाउँदा मिडिया र पत्रकारको कुम दलका नेता वा अन्य तत्वसँग कुम जोडिन पुगेको थियो र कालान्तरमा अंकमाल र उठबस सम्मै पुगेर एउटै थालको जुठोसम्म खान थालिएको हो भने सुन पानी छर्केर आफूलाई अविलम्बै चोख्याउन अबेर गर्नुहुँदैन ।
न्ेपाल पत्रकार महासंघले खुट्टा दर्हो टेकेर भन्न सक्नुपर्यो दलका भातृसंगठनको रुपमा गोलबद्ध भएका कथित पत्रकारहरुलाई आइन्दा मान्यता दिईनेछैन । महासंघभित्रै यो समूहका यति र यो गुटका यतिलाई यो पद दिने भन्ने चाँजोपाँजो मिलाई निर्वाचनको ढोंग मात्र रचेर सर्वसम्मतिमा नेतृत्वमा पुर्याउने कोटा प्रणालीकोे अन्त्य नभएसम्म कसैले पदमा पुगेर माखो मार्लान भन्ने आशा गर्नु नै बेकार हो । यस्तै नियति सँधै दाहोरिईरहने हो भने महासंघ पनि दलहरुले झुन्डयाएको बुख्याँचा सिवाय केही हुनेछैन । न्यूनतम पारिश्रमिक र सुविधा लागु गराउन एकजुट भई मिडियाका मालिकहरुलाई बाध्य बनाउन नसक्ने, हरेक श्रमजीवि पत्रकारको बिमा अनिवार्य गराउन नसक्ने र पत्रकारिताको आडमा भईरहेका मोलमोलाई र अन्य तिकडम मुकदर्शक भएर हेर्ने तर नियन्त्रण गराउन नसक्ने हो भने महासंघ खारेज गरिदिए पनि खासै फरक पर्दैन ।
  नेपालको कानुन अनुसार जो कसैले प्रक्रिया पुरयाएर मिडिया खोल्न पाउँछ तर कुन भूगोलमा कति मिडिया भए पुग्ने हो ?कति पत्रकार भए पुग्ने हो ?पत्रकारको न्यूनतम पढाई कति हुनुपर्ने ?मिडियाका मालिकहरुले के के मापदण्ड पुरा गर्नुपर्ने हो राज्यले त्यसको प्रष्ट नीति बनाई त्यसको कार्यान्वयन र अनुगमन गर्न गराउन सक्नुपर्छ । हैन भने मिडिया र पत्रकारको संख्या विकासे च्याउ जस्तै बढदै जाने खतरा उत्पन्न हुन थालिसक्यो । एकातिर मिडियामा लागेर हातमुख जोर्न धाउधाउ पर्ने पत्रकार छन् भने अर्कोतिर नाम र काम नै नसुनिएका नदेखिएका पत्रकारका हालिमुहाली र हाइहाइ छ । के देखेर वा के पाएर बजारको आयतन भन्दा बढी मिडिया र पत्रकार टिकिराखेका छन् यसको गम्भीर अध्ययन र अनुसन्धान हुनै पर्छ । नभए अनावश्यक रुपमा मौलाएका बन्सोहरुले मुख्य खेती नै सखाप पार्ने जोखिम हरदम रहिरन्छ ।





 मिडियालाई नियन्त्रण गर्ने भन्न खोजेको हैन तर विकृति बढेको थाहा पाए पछि निगरानी चाहिं राख्नैपर्छ । नेपाल पत्रकार महासंघले यी सबै प्रक्रियाहरुमा आफ्नो उपस्थित र भूमिका कहाँ र कसरी खेल्ने हो प्रष्ट हुन जरुरी छ । हैन भए केही हजार पत्रकार गोलबद्ध गरी आवधिक रुपमा बाँडीचुँडी नेतृत्व फेर्दै वर्षौंसम्म पुरानै नारा उछालिईरहनु र फलाकिरहनुको कुनै तुक छैन । महासंघको चुनावका बखत नेतृत्व चयनका लागि शीर्ष राजनीतिक तहबाटै दिईने दवाव र प्रलोभन कसैबाट छिपेको कुरा हैन । पत्रकारिताको धर्म र मर्म बुझेकै पत्रकार हो भने उसले हिम्मत गरेर भन्न सक्नुपर्यो “म कसैको कठपुतली र दास बन्न आएको हैन मलाई जित र हारसँग कुनै सरोकार पनि छैन ।” नभए दलकै ईशारामा लम्पसार परेर नाचिरहने र व्यवसायिक पत्रकारिताको ढोंग रच्नेहरुले कतिबेला पत्रकारिताको हनुमान चालिसा लेख्छन् देख्न धेरै कुर्न नपर्ला ।
 वर्षौंसम्म पत्रकारिता गरेर वरिष्ठको पगरी गुथ्नेहरु र विश्वविद्यालयका अध्यापक अध्येताहरुले पत्रकारितामा के सही र के गलत अभ्यास भईरहेका छन् सशक्त रुपमा झकझकाउन र बहस गराउन सक्नुपर्यो । चिया पसल र भट्टीमा बसेर बर्बादै भो खत्तमै भो भनेर गनगन र सत्तो सराप गर्नुको साटो आवश्यक परेको ठाउँमा हस्तक्षेपकारी र सिर्जनात्मक सल्लाहसुझाव दिनसक्नुपर्यो । पत्रकारिताको सिद्धान्त र मान्यता पढेर पत्रकार भएकाहरुले गलत बाटो जानी नजानी हिंडिरहेका साथीहरुलाई मार्गदर्शन र दिशानिर्देश गर्ने साहस राख्नपर्यो । पत्रकारको नाममा कुनै दल वा कसैका हुक्के ,दैले,धुपौरे ,झोले,टपरे,अरौटे भरौटे भएकाहरुलाई ऐनामा अनुहार हेर्दा हिनतावोध हुने स्थित उत्पन्न हुनपर्यो । कसैलाई उचालेर र पछारेर ठूलै पत्रकार भएँ भन्ने भ्रम पाल्नेहरुलाई बागमतीको मुहानमै लगेर पालैपालो नुहाउनुपर्यो ।
 राजनीतिले सबैलाई सक्कायो पनि भन्ने तर आफैं त्यसको मतियार र हतियार बन्ने काम हरेक पत्रकार र पत्रकारिता जगतले नै अविलम्ब त्याग्न सक्नुपर्छ । दुनियाँका पीर मर्का बुझेर लेख्न पनि सक्ने तर आफनो मालिकसँग चुँ बोल्न नसकेर किन चाउरिस् मरिच आफ्नै रागले भन्नुपर्ने हालतबाट पत्रकार माथि नउठेसम्म वृतिविकास हुन सक्दैन । गर्भमै जाने बुझेर कोही आएको हुँदैन तर दैलो देखिसकेपछि हगिरहने मुर्खता कसैले गर्न हुँदैन । आज काखमा राखेर सुम्सुम्याउनेहरुले कुन दिन आफनै कोखामा रोपेर आन्द्राभुँडी निकाल्छन् भर हुँदैन । हरेक पत्रकारलाई  ढुंगो र शालिग्राम चिन्ने सद्बुद्धि आओस् । नेपाल पत्रकार महासंघले कुनै वाद र रंगमा नलत्पतिएको सफेद नेता पाओस् ।
अहिलेलाई यत्ति । 

(प्रिन्सिपल, पोलिगन कलेज अफ मास कम्युनिकेशन एण्ड जर्नलिजम,बबरमहल ,काठमाडौं)