MSNBC detailed today the latest in a macabre trend that's apparently sweeping Japan.

Get online, meet a few of your friends, get together over a charcoal stove in a sealed car, and inhale carbon monoxide gas until you all pass out and die! Sounds like a fun time, no?

In Chichibu, in Saitama prefecture, just north of Tokyo:

In Saitama prefecture, just north of Tokyo, five men and one woman were found dead in an estate car. A police spokesman said that charcoal stoves were found in the car but declined to give further details. The charcoal generates carbon monoxide, a poisonous gas.

And apparently they weren't alone:

"Separately, a man and two women were found dead in a sealed car parked in the foothills of a mountain in Aomori prefecture, 280 miles north of Tokyo. Again, charcoal stoves were found in the car.
The three dead were undergoing treatment for mental illness and may have met in hospital, an Aomori police spokesman said." [link]

Excepting a few mental health patients, how do otherwise "normal" people get together for suicide? Apparently these people are meeting on the Internet. The phenomenon is actually alarming.

To quote the Daily Yomiuri:

"Ninety-one people committed suicide in groups after meeting each other via the Internet last year, up from 55 in 2004, the National Police Agency said Thursday, prompting Internet service providers to pass on details to the police about people who post suicide messages online.

According to the NPA, the number of Internet-related group suicides increased to 34 in 2005, up by 15 cases from the previous year. People in their 20s accounted for about 40 percent of these group suicides, or 38 people, while eight people were aged between 10 and 19. "

Apparently the number of people advertising suicide groups is rising online. How did it get to this point?

To quote Yumiko Misaki, director of the Tokyo Inochi no Denwa (Phone of Life), a suicide counseling service:

"Many people are too scared to die alone...so they reach each other through the Internet and make arrangements…And the worst thing is that people are often very influenced by reporting on this, so it's likely to keep on increasing."

A video documentary about the suicide trend is available from AmericanRonin.com.
Japan's suicide rate is more than double ours, according to the World Health Organization. Russia is almost triple.

Granted, we can talk about stressful societies and their ills, but on a practical level, people need resources.

In Japanese, their contact information is here, or here in English. This is a worthy cause, and a light at the end of the tunnel for many who lose their way.