Hacker News Reader

Comment by kevinwuhoo | Hacker News Reader

If you didn't see it last week, the "A Buddhist monk confronts Japan’s suicide culture" post from last week is a really great read. [1] There's a portion in the article where it speaks to different cultural norms around suicide.

"By [Japanese] tradition, suicide can absolve guilt and cancel debt, can restore honor and prove loyalty. 'The heirs of Cain can never escape the eyes of God, even less in the next world than in this,' Maurice Pinguet wrote in his study 'Voluntary Death in Japan.' 'But in Japan you can hide in death, disappear into it entirely and mend the fault as you go' In Japan, suicide can be a gesture of moral integrity and freedom, or an act of beauty."

[1]: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/06/24/last-call-3

View on HN

I dont think your quote is entirely relevant here. We are talking about someone who was under huge media pressure following the Obokata case. The Obokata case was heavily featured in the media here in Japan, and you can imagine the people involved must have been under tremendous stress. This scientist may have had some level of guilt because of his involvment with Obokata but that was nothing worth dying for to clear his name. This is much more about media exposure and pressure, and in that sense a more regular kind of suicide.

No, I think this falls entirely in line with the Japanese idea of accepting responsibility through suicide. Sasai was Obokata's mentor, he was instrumental in getting her papers published, and now he's caused a massive loss of face for not just himself, but the generally very well regarded institution he works for (Riken).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he should have committed suicide, I'm just saying that I can entirely see why he would have considered it a valid option to discharge his guilt.

I live and work in Tokyo. People are intensely shocked and saddened by this turn of events. Like, stop working and walk around with hand on head stunned reactions when it first came out.

This is not something respected or expected. Trust me, Japanese people love to point out they "saw it coming" or claim something is typical and aligns with their worldview - this is not one of those times.

That's just how YOU read it. You probably missed the fact that he mentioned in his suicide letters he was not killing himself because of her and this case. He was obviously under emotional stress and that's enough to push many people to suicide if you are in a fragile state, no matter if you are guilty or not.

Sauce of letter content? I found one news article [1] that says "Police and Riken said Sasai left what appeared to be suicide notes, but refused to disclose their contents."

[1] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2716540/Japanese-sci...

That's what was reported on Japanese news (about the contents of the letters). I can't find a link right now but I will check it later.

>This scientist may have had some level of guilt because of his involvment with Obokata but that was nothing worth dying for to clear his name.

Japan is shame society. Shame is weighing heavily even if when person is not guilty and drive people to suicide.

Look, there are tons of scandals in Japan which get large media attention every single week, yet we don't see high profile, shamed people jumping off cliffs or hanging themselves every two minutes. Let's dispell this myth that Japanese kill themselves every single time they are publicly shamed. This is far from the norm. Most of the time they do dogeza (bowing on their knees for apology) in public, accept the blame and that's it, nobody talks about it anymore. Let's not exaggerate the situation, shall we.

Why do you think this particular case "shocked Japan" ? Because it's not the norm, precisely.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com