Okay. sorry I haven’t posted in over a month. There is nothing really interesting to talk about. I have hit a point in which I am trapped in a monotonous cycle of going to school, going home, watching people come home drunk, and going to bed. Any interesting things I have to post have probably been posted to my facebook (like my recent trip to Ueno Park.) How about this time we talk about something interesting. Something that’s a real issue here. Something that affects the daily life’s of millions of Tokyo residents every single day.
Let’s talk about Suicide!
I remember a while back watching the movie “Suicide Club,” which features a gory scene early on in which cheery school girls happily hold hands and jump in front of a moving train. Fantastic, I know. Them crazy Japanese filmmakers really know how to come up with ridiculous ideas. People don’t really kill themselves that way….do they?
I’ve lived here for about 3 months, and I can certainly tell you that it happens. It may not happen as much as in the aforementioned movie, but it happens often. Like every day. Involving trains. Yeah. I know this because as a resident of Tokyo, it affects me just as much as everyone else.
On most trains in the city, there are 2 monitors above every door. One just streams silent but still somehow loud advertisements, and the other displays relevant train information. Stuff like a map of the train line, what station is next, and of course, train delays. Train delays are special cause when they are displayed, a nice 4 tone melody plays to alert you that delay information is being displayed. I hear it often.
You’ll see what train line was delayed, what area is affected, what the current status is, and the reason why. Reasons can include ‘Wind,’ ‘Fog,’ ‘Cable Trouble,’ but by far the most often I’ve seen is ‘Accident.’ It actually displays the word ‘Accident’ in English. ‘Accident’ could mean anything. Maybe someone dropped a piece of luggage onto the tracks. Perhaps trains collided somewhere (although they would probably stop running the trains altogether.) Maybe someone, somehow managed to put their body in front of a moving train. Now we’re getting somewhere.
It says Accident in English, but the Japanese term used to describe this incident is much more revealing. “人身事故.” “Jinshinjiko” if you care to pronounce it. Literally “Human Body Accident.” The dictionary on my iPhone defines it as a “Traffic accident resulting in personal injury or death.” One could assume that the writers of this dictionary would know that this term is used mostly for such ‘accidents’ occurring in traffic.
Anyway, I know at this point, some people are thinking, “Just because it says ‘Human Body Accident’ doesn’t mean they’re all suicides.” I remember there was a problem in Chicago a while back with kids who would walk along train tracks and end up killed because of it, so I’ll give them that much. However, here in Japan, it happens way too much to be legitimate accidents. We all know what’s happening here. People are killing themselves.
I can’t really say why they’re killing themselves (sorry to disappoint.) All I can say is that it is a complete inconvenience for the rest of us. There have been a couple of times when I have been making my way to school, and someone decides to throw themselves in front of a train on my line. I am now stuck on a train for a while, unable to get to my destination, staring at the monitors waiting for the word ‘Accident’ to change to ‘Clearing Tracks.’ Once when I was on my way home, it happened and I ended up waiting at the platform for an hour waiting for a train that wasn’t completely packed to it’s limit to arrive. It’s frustrating. It’s so much of a problem that the families of those who kill themselves are forced to pay a ¥5,000,000 penalty for “public inconvenience.” It’s a great way to go if you hate your family.
But what’s being done to prevent it. Most stations on the subway lines have 3 foot high barriers, and some even have barriers that reach the ceiling, but most above-ground stations have no barrier at all. Stations on the Yamanote Line, the busiest line in Tokyo, are fitted with blue lights intended to calm people down. That shit isn’t going to do anything. There is a certain station on the Chuo Line, the line with the most suicides, that has a mirror facing the platform, so that those who stand on the edge with the intention of jumping will take a good look at themselves. I like that idea better, but what if someone is killing themselves because they think they’re ugly? That would just reinforce it.
While I complain about the problem, I can’t really offer much in solutions (once again, sorry to disappoint.) This is more intended to open peoples eyes. To give people a quick look into the real side of Tokyo. A look past the sugar-pop happiness of Japanese pop culture and the chic styles of fashion. A look into what Tokyo really is.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this. Leave a comment below, if you’d like. Or you could follow me on twitter. It’s all good. Thanks for reading!
