Why is suicide so common in Japan?

Without a doubt the grimmest statistic coming out of Japan today concerns the number of suicides, which have exceeded 30,000 annually for 11 years in a row — engendering indescribable tragedies for so many families.

But with this having spun into an issue in last month's Lower House elections — even Yukio Hatoyama, who is now prime minister, mentioned it in his speeches — it's clear the Japanese people have begun to take that awful statistic to heart and to treat suicide as a national problem. . . . In Japan, as in much of the developed world, suicide is by far the leading cause of death among young people, amounting here to one-third of deaths in the 20-to-49 age group. In all, the number of suicides in Japan is five times that of total deaths from road traffic accidents.  

Nearly 100 Japanese commit suicide each day

An average of almost 100 Japanese people killed themselves each day last year, according to figures out today, dealing a serious blow to a government campaign to drastically reduce the suicide rate by 2016. A total of 33,093 people committed suicide in 2007, up 3% from 2006 and the 10th year in a row the number has exceeded 30,000, the national police agency said. The figure is the second highest after the 34,427 recorded suicides in 2003. Depression was identified as the main factor in around a fifth of cases, followed by physical illness and debt. The number of elderly people who killed themselves rose 9% from a year earlier as Japan grapples with a rapidly aging society and rising poverty among pensioners. People aged over 60 made up the biggest individual group of victims, rising to a record high of 36.6% of the total, the agency said.

Does Pornorgraphy Provide a Safe Outlet for Pedophiles?

Japan is to bow to international pressure and ban the possession of child pornography, although the new law is expected to anger child welfare groups by exempting manga comics and animated films. . . . Currently, Japan and Russia are the only G8 countries in which it is still legal to own pornographic images of children provided they do not intend to sell them or post them on the internet. . . . Sexually explicit comics account for a sizeable chunk of Japan's 500bn yen manga market. Many feature schoolgirls or childlike adults being raped or engaging in sadomasochism.
Manga belonging to the popular "lolicon" - Japanese slang for Lolita complex - genre are likely to escape the ban, as MPs are concerned that outlawing them could infringe on freedom of expression and drive men who use them as an outlet for their sexual urges to commit more serious offences.