-
- They call it the suicide line - the station in Tokyo's
western suburbs where many Japanese take their own lives as the country
struggles with serious economic gloom.
-
- Thirty thousand people committed suicide in Japan last
year, double the 1997 rate.
-
- The country is facing its worst recession since World
War II.
-
- And, although there are growing signs of recovery, the
old certainties of a lifetime of employment and growing prosperity have
gone.
-
- In the past, workers could expect secure jobs with the
same employer until the end of their working days, regardless of their
ability.
-
- But the recession and record unemployment have changed
all that - and led to despair for many.
-
- On average, 100 people are committing suicide every day
in a society where, without state welfare, the loss of a job is an unacceptable
loss of face and a devastating loss of income.
-
- One woman, sitting by herself for half an hour - suspiciously
long for a rush-hour commuter - said she had been employed for five years
as a clerk in a toy factory.
-
- "The trains are often delayed because of suicides,
she said.
-
- "When people jump, it takes hours to get to the
office. Not that it really matters - my work isn't going very well anyway."
-
- She said she was afraid of losing her job, but would
not commit suicide.
-
- New underclass
-
- She had thought about it, but she was single; it was
the people with families and mortgages who were in real trouble.
-
- For some, things look good. The pulse has returned to
the economy, the Stock Market is up and shoppers are out in force.
-
- But a closer look reveals just how much Japan has changed.
-
- The new underclass of homeless and unemployed even populate
the manicured gardens near the Imperial Palace.
-
- The Japanese dream is dead.
-
-
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/asia-pacific/newsid_425000/425457.stm
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