“Accidents” on public transportation in Japan
October 11th, 2006 by cloudysunshine
Well, it’s been awhile since I could post anything on here, but I saw something the other day I’d like to talk about. A suicide, otherwise known as an “accident” on public transportation in Japan.
The first time I came to Japan, and a train was delayed, a friend explained to me that there’d been an accident. I was shocked, cause I’d heard that Japan’s public transportation system was one of the safest in the world. After hearing the word “accident,” I imagined a train crash, and started worrying if anyone had been hurt.
I asked my friend for more info, but he told me there was no crash. The “accident” was that somebody had committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. ‘What a terrible way to go,’ I thought, but what shocked me even more was when he told me that it happens all the time.
At the time, I found it hard to believe. But now I realize that my friend was right. It does happen all the time, and so much so that it doesn’t even phase me anymore. Whenever I see a train delay caused by an “accident,” I know someone has just made the final leap.
It’s easy to feel detached from it when all you see is a flashing notice on the screen at a station. But when you are at the scene of the suicide, it’s a little more intense.
When I arrived at Kawasaki station last Monday, I heard there’d been an accident on the Kehin-Tohoku line. I knew it was a suicide, but had no idea it was at the actual platform in Kawasaki station until I saw a huge group of people staring in the distance.
I couldn’t see what they were looking at, but I figured it out when I saw four guys in uniforms run over there with a stretcher, some rope, and a blue tarp. They were the clean-up crew, coming to take what was left of the body off of the tracks.
If I wanted to, I could have gone over to get a closer look at the carnage, but out of respect for the deceased, I decided to move on. But lots of other people seemed excited, and were running over to get a peek of the mangled body before it could be taken off the tracks.
For me, I’d never want to die in such a public manner…with people gawking over my twisted body and taking pictures with their cellphones. I felt sad for the person who died, and can hardly imagine how hopeless they must have felt before jumping in front of an oncoming train. It was a sad thing to see.
Hi everybody ! Long time no see!I was a student of Gotanda Nova.I met you so many times.
Anyway,this is a true story. When I was a university student, I saw the scene that the suicide was just jumped in.It was so terrible!! I could not eat food for three days. I could not forget that scene. Once a year, I saw a dream of that. Oh, it still makes me scared.
And JR Chuou Line is very famous because there are a lot of people who commit suicide. Why is the Chuo Line full of suicide?One of my friends said that reason, that’s cause was Chuo Line’s sirens or hooters it sound when the door open or close. The sound makes people calling for suicide. I don’t know it is true or not.
But I’m sure this is one of the reason of that.
Actually, I don’t know suicide is right or wrong or not, but as you said, I believe that it is wrong to kill oneself in public. It must not be allowed by all means. Suicide by jumping will involve the passers, suicide by fire will cause a fire, and suicide by gas will cause an explosion. The suicide by throwing in front of a train is the same because it will involve unrelated people.Think of the consequences of your act, before you throw in frontof a train, or jump from the roof.I have same idea of yours. And I wish that the number of suicide will be decrease not only Chuo Line but the whole world.
Yeah, I’d been waiting for your next post for long time! And I got it now. But, what a sad story…
I feel a bit uncomfortable when I see the sign of “accident resulting in injury or death” at the station. It’s usually the case of comitting suicide as you said. Is it an accident? I don’t think so. For the person who comites suicide, and the person’s family, it’s totally an incident. I know a couple of people who lost their family by suicide, and when they mention the case, they use the word of “accident”. I’m not really sure but the word “accident” sounds much milder for them to say.
You said it’s hard to imagine to kill themselves in front of a lot of strangers. I can imagine there’re a lot of ill mannered strangers. It’s so terrible to hear that some of them try to take photos of it. How heartless they are! But even though, I try to understand the victims feeling. They might anticipate some miracle happened among a lot of people. If someone had adressed to the person accidentaly, he or she might have changed the mind and stop comitting suicide…Or, they could think if they are killed by train, their family might try to believe that the victims died by really “accident”.
Anyway, they don’t care about the strangers’ trouble. I guess they just think of themselves or their close people.
I think Japanese are quite lenient for the people who comit suicide. But nunbers and reasons are so terrible recently. So sad.
Wow, thank you for the comments. It’s very interesting to hear everyone’s opinions and stories on this topic.
Kazu, it’s good to hear from you! But I’m sorry that you had to see such a traumatizing thing up close and personal. I agree with you about suicide. I can’t really say if it’s right or wrong, and suppose it depends on the situation.
For example, if someone has terminal cancer, and will die an extremely painful death in the next few months, do they have a right to decide how they should die? This is a big issue now in America, where some places want to allow physician assisted suicide in cases like this.
I also agree that people who commit suicide should consider the impact it will have on other people who witness it. The thing I saw in Kawasaki happened in the middle of the afternoon, and there were a lot of small children there.
I’ve also heard stories about the Chuo line being the most famous for suicide. Another reason I heard for people jumping in front of the Chuo is that the orange color of the train attracts them to it.
Noriko, I also think incident is a better word to describe what these train suicides, but agree that it’s probably easier for family members if they call it an accident. It must be really hard for them to cope with something so sad.
Hi Cloudy and Noriko ! It’s cloudy today.
Your opinions are very useful.If neighboring people are interested in the others’ abnormal behavior, the suicide might be decreased, as Noriko said.
I think if you feel symptoms of depression , such as ,loss of confidence, sleeplessness,loss of a appetite , unexplained headaches, digestion problems, go and talk to a doctor. There is nothing wrong or embarrassing about feeling distressed. The next step might be to realize that it is not your value as a human being that is at stake here, but that you are one of the many victims of the present state of the economy.
It’s very difficult to pinpoint the reasons behind these acts of despair, in most cases, layoffs, unemployment , professional insecurity seems to be the main factors. There are a lot of people who were not able to pay back the loan borrowed from banks to build their houses especially in the Japanese bubble term
and couldn’t pay back their consumer credit.
As you know, the number of people who committed suicide last year reached more than 32,000.That is more than three times the number of people who died in traffic accidents during the same period. Around 90 people committed suicide every day in Japan.This is a very serious problem as well as declining birthrate.
Moreover, the almost perfect symmetry between the graphs of unemployment and suicides in Japan for these 10 years indicates that there is a strong correlation between the tow.
That is a sad story.
It reminded me one of my experience.
When I was a junior high school student, I have dropped between the train and platform when I was getting off the train.
But I could hold on the platform with my arm, so I could climb on to the platform.
Yamanote line was really crowded, and at the Shinjuku Station, everybody wanted to get off the train quickly, so I was pushed by people, then I dropped.
There are many other accident except suicide.
I remember the news that someone dropped from the platform because he was drunk, and 2 other guys tried to help him, but all of them died.
It was sad story too.
I think the JR lines are very dangerous.
That’s a good point. We shouldn’t assume that an “accident” is a suicide. There are many real accidents that happen too. That story about what happened to you in Junior High is a perfect example. I’m glad you weren’t seriously hurt, but that experience must have been terrifying!
Sometimes it annoys me when people can’t wait their turn to get off the train. Their pushing and shoving to get off first just makes the process take longer.
One time, the train was so packed that my arm was stuck behind one person, and my foot was trapped behind another. The kooks on the train were in their usual panic to get off first, and I got shoved face-forward to the ground.
As my arms were stuck, there was no way to break my fall, and I thought I was gonna land flat on my face! Luckily, I managed to wiggle my leg free just in time to save myself.
One of the fools behind me kept pushing really violently, so I made sure to elbow him as hard as I could right in his rib-cage. He backed off after that.
I swear, it’s like a herd of wild animals stampeding off the train, and you’ve gotta be careful you don’t get trampled!
Really a beautiful blog!
Cheers from Madrid Spain!
Nicolas and Nora
http://whatsupinmadrid.blogs-de-voyage.fr/