Rail Companies Use Blue Lights To Tackle Japan's Suicide Problem
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- groups:
- Tech, Upstream, News, Current Tonight, 3 more
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- btucker
- added this
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this is so strange, because i just found an article about the 'depressive' qualities of blue-colored light...
http://current.com/items/91259119_watching-tv-late-at-night-could-make-you-depre...
Maybe it's a cultural thing...?
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And people say money and "great" health care makes for a better life.
Looks like it doesn't.
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...so sad...but the pressure to succeed, and failure not an option...has had and will have dire consequences...
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You have got to be kidding!!! That's a bandaid if I've ever seen one!!
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population control. its working for japan. now if only the US could hop on board maybe we'd be world leaders in everything instead of a burdening bunch of welfare wastes of space
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Why not
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- larrysnotes
- 1 month ago
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This is awesome...
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Good. Very much.
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- metalcookiesxy70
- 1 month ago
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Death by train sounds messy, violent and very public.
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- unimatrix0
- 1 month ago
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One shouldn't underestimate the effect of colour on the brain, and how subtly the brain can function, but they should be investing their money in better mental health care.
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My life is a disaster, I want to end it right n- Ooooh, shiny blue lights! Life is worth living again!
Japan is so very strange...
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- DeliaTheArtist
- 1 month ago
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Hey at least they are addressing the problem in some way and not turning a blind eye.
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- cheeseAndCrackers
- 1 month ago
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suicide by train does happen but the most common method is by hanging and more recently by poisonous gas which ends up killing others too.
if someone commits suicide by train, the family of the deceased will get a clean up bill for around $80,000, and since many commit suicide because of financial problems this isn't the way to go!
Japan does not have the highest level of suicides I think that belongs to Estonia?
Most suicides by train happen during the day time so the blue light thing don't help much!
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...how many Japanese live in Estonia?
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The next thing you know they will be installing red lights in order to 'stimulate' the economy.
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I thought making things blue would cause people to have depressive feelings, no?
Anyway, I don't think that those blue lights will make anyone happy. In fact, they make the whole platform look somber.
Perhaps the real reason the suicide rate is so high in Japan, is because even though there's so many people jammed into the smallest of spaces, I'm sure there are many people who are lonely.
The Japanese are very big on family and pride and self-preservation and so if you don't have a big family or they disown you or something, then they feel that there must be something wrong with themselves rather than the other way around.
Also, I heard that mental illness is still a BIG TABOO in Japan and that you are not supposed to talk about problems and stuff like that nor are you to seek psychiatric help if you feel depressed or anxious. That could also explain why the number of suicides is so high.
Sad.
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- Onyx_Honda
- 1 month ago
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yea get off the tracks all calm and the hang themselves when they get home because there are no more blue lights
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60 Minutes did a report on Japan's high suicide rate among high school students over 20 years ago. The pressure of getting high grades to be able to get into the better colleges was the reason. Now its pressured of the job and the economy and being alone. I think it is all a conspiracy of the drug manufacturers to get us addicted to their new pills.
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Mental health professionals in Japan have long known that the reason for the unnecessarily high suicide rate in Japan is due to unemployment, bankruptcies, and the increasing levels of stress on businessmen and other salaried workers who have suffered enormous hardship in Japan since the bursting of the stock market bubble here that peaked around 1997. Until that year Japan had an annual suicide of rate figures between 22,000 and 24,000 each year. Following the bursting of the stock market and the long term economic downturn that has followed here since the suicide rate in 1998 increased by around 35% and since 1998 the number of people killing themselves each year in Japan has consistently remained well over 30,000 each and every year to the present day.
The current worldwide recession is of course impacting Japan too, so unless very proactive and well funded local and nation wide suicide prevention programs and initiatives are immediately it is very difficult to foresee the governments previously stated intention to reduce the suicide rate to around 23,000 by the year 2016 being achievable. On the contrary the numbers, and the human suffering and the depression and misery that the people who become part of these numbers, have to endure may well stay at the current levels that have persistently been the case here for the last ten years. It could even get worse unless even more is done to prevent this terrible loss of life.
The current numbers licensed psychiatrists (around 13,000), Japan Society of Certified Clinical Psychologists clinical psychologists (16,732 as of 2007), and Psychiatric Social Workers (39,108 as of 2009) must indeed be increased. In order for professional mental health counseling and psychotherapy services to be covered for depression and other mental illnesses by public health insurance it would seem advisable that positive action is taken to resume and complete the negotiations on how to achieve national licensing for clinical psychologists in Japan through the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and not just the Ministry of Education as is the current situation. These discussions were ongoing between all concerned mental health professional authorities that in the ongoing select committee and ministerial levels that were ongoing during the Koizumi administration. With the current economic recession adding even more hardship and stress in the lives its citizens, now would seem to be a prime opportunity for the responsible Japanese to take a pro-active approach to finally providing government approval for national licensing for clinical psychologists who provide mental health care counseling and psychotherapy services to the people of Japan.
Useful telephone number for Japanese residents of Japan who speak Japanese and are feeling depressed or suicidal: Inochi no Denwa (Lifeline Telephone Service)：
Japan: 0120-738-556 Tokyo: 3264 4343
Andrew Grimes
Tokyo Counseling Services
http://tokyocounseling.com/english/
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- andrewtokyojapan
- 1 day ago
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