Japanese online suicide pacts

[Hikaru79]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4071805.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4695864.stm

I find this hugely disturbing. Martin, watch where you surf

[Martin]

Yeah, Japan is a strange place. In part I think it's caused by this huge popular culture here, and this big pressure for kids to be 'as cool as everyone else,' whatever that means.

There are about 4000 more suicides in Japan than in the US each year (30,000 vs. 34,000), and Japan has only about 40% of the US's population.

[codemage]

I wonder if workplace / social stress is a major factor too. I hear that there's an actual autopsy-official word for "worked to death" over there.

[MysticVegeta]

I also read somewehre that the japanese kids have to do 5 hours of homework. it was in my encyclopedia...

[Amailer]

So this suicide thing is true... Is it legal?

Seriously, what can provoke someone to commit suicide? Isn't it like, hard?
It cannot be studied, if it was then students should be killing themselves all around the world (unless they already do, which in that case is very sad o.O)

[1of42]

Amailer, that post was non-sequitur after non-sequitur...

[Amailer]

I have no idea what sequitur means

[md]

Amailer wrote:

I have no idea what sequitur means

Dictionary. It's amazing what new fangled things people come up with these days.

[[Gandalf]]

Well, I know there is a comic about it in the newspaper, but there are two other possible meanings.

Once again the result of me not refeshing the page for ages...

[Martin]

MysticVegeta wrote:

I also read somewehre that the japanese kids have to do 5 hours of homework. it was in my encyclopedia...

Not only that, but they have cram schools here which parents send their children to - more school after school. It's nuts, and leads to lots of people completely burning out in university (why work when you can sleep for the first time in your life?)

Ironic thing is that the Japanese work force is statistically the least productive in the G8.

[codemage]

When I was last in Europe, I heard a lot of opinion on the Japanese economic culture.

The consensus there is that the Japanese work themselves ragged, but actually don't work that efficiently: just long hours & hard work (often followed by binge drinking).

The eruo-economic style focuses more on working efficiently for more moderate lengths of time, intersperced with generous amounts of morale-boosting break-time.

I know which model I'd prefer for myself.

[Martin]

It is true. Someone working 40-45 hour weeks, between which they get to see their friends and family will get way more done than someone working 70 hour weeks, and in the event that a person working a 40 hour week has to put in a 70 hour week, they will be way more productive than a person who has been doing 70 hour weeks for their entire career.

A lot of them don't even put in for overtime - they feel that it's their duty for their company to work as long as they can. The result of this is that if you walk around downtown at 4am on a Saturday you will see dozens of businessmen in suits throwing up in the gutters. It's kind of sad.

Anyway, I'll find some actual statistics, but the one that comes to mind is that two average American workers are slightly more productive than three average Japanese workers.

[MysticVegeta]

Well I am just glad I am not japanese. Too much burden/pressure to be a student there, and I am sure a grade 10 student there has 5X more brainz than a grade 10 american/canadian (like me).

[md]

MysticVegeta wrote:

Well I am just glad I am not japanese. Too much burden/pressure to be a student there, and I am sure a grade 10 student there has 5X more brainz than a grade 10 american/canadian (like me).

Like you perhaps... (kidding!)

I don't think the average japanese are any more smart (or dumb) then the average candian or american. Although their seeming obliviousness to the fact that they work too much to get too little done might count towards them being dumb...

The way I see it it the way the Japanese work themselves ragged just increases my job security here in Canada. It makes more sense to hire me to do something then someone in Japan because I do it much more efficiently. Why do you think Martin got hired?

[Martin]

It's not that they are more or less intelligent than a non-Japanese person, but that from a very young age they are trained to work very hard. A 15 year old Japanese person with an A average probably knows more than a 15 year old person with an A average in the US, but that's because of the school system. An American in their school system would experience the same rate of success.

And it all balances out in the end. American university grads are, according to productivity, smarter than Japanese university grads (on average - there are still very elite universities in Japan). Plus I doubt that any 15 year olds in the US have killed themselves for having 60+ hours of homework (on top of classes) four weeks in a row.