It’s almost become common knowledge by now that Japan ranks in the top 10 for number of suicides annually.  Most of these fall into one of two categories – either middle-aged men who have just lost their jobs or youth who are failing academically.  The last statistic I personally saw was from 2008 which put the numbers around 33,000 per year.  About 2000 of these were people who decided that jumping in front of a 120 mile-an-hour speeding train was the way to go.

As it turns out, jumping in front of the train is not as practical as it might seem.  Those who own and operate the trains have taken to suing the families of the people who jump.  When a person commits suicide via the train, it shuts the service down for an hour or two, an inconvenience to people and costly as well.  Some of the lawsuits have amounted to more than 3 million yen (that’s about $40,000 US).  So in addition to grieving over the loss of their loved ones, the family goes into debt.

The same goes for those who decide to kill themselves in their own homes.  Apparently it is very difficult to rent a house or apartment where someone has committed suicide.  Many Japanese feel that the home is unclean after such an event.  So property owners have taken to charging the families.  The bills for clean-up, renovation and even lost rent are all sent to the deceased’s loved ones.

Luckily for suicidal people everywhere, train stations have begun to install blue LED lights in the stations.  These apparently help in calming people and may prevent future suicides from happening.  Installation of bars is also on the agenda of train station anti-suicide upgrades.

So remember, if you’re in Japan and feeling like death is the only way out, find someplace to off yourself where no one will feel obligated to sue your family for clean-up costs.